National Portrait Gallery

A discussion of the piece of art chosen to be the 'Portrait of the Day'.

Drop-in storytelling sessions on the third Saturday of every month. Suitable for ages 3+.

'The most famous of all melancholy love portraits' Sir Roy Strong. Following the Gallery's successful public appeal earlier this year to raise the funds to purchase the amazing portrait of the Elizabethan poet, John Donne, we are delighted to announce that the painting is now on display for everyone to enjoy. John Donne was one of the most talented writers of his age and his work, which encompassed poetry, verse letters, essays and sermons, including famous poems like The Flea, The Bait and A Valediction: forbidding Mourning, came to be widely celebrated. Thanks to the support of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, The Art Fund, Gallery visitors, friends and supporters you can now visit John Donne in the Tudor Galleries.

'A small portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots, long considered to date from the eighteenth century, has now been discovered to be an image painted within her lifetime or possibly very shortly after her death. Recent tree ring analysis (known as dendrochronology) has established that the panel, which belongs to the National Portrait Gallery, was felled in the 16th century and the work can now be dated to the period 1560 -1592. Recent conservation work by the Gallery has also revealed an original oval background with a marbling effect, which had previously been over painted with dark brown paint. The portrait, purchased by the Gallery in 1916, is a version of a known type, which also exists in a miniature of around the same date. The newly conserved portrait may have been painted as an image for one of Mary's supporters either as a symbol of loyalty during her incarceration or as an icon of Catholic martyrdom after death. But why the portrait was overpainted is something of a mystery. There does not seem to be any damage to the surface below and the repaint would have obscured Mary's name, but it is possible it may have been repainted, in the late 18th century or early 19th century, to fit in with a set of other images of European kings and queens. The portrait depicts Mary following her return to Scotland after her husband, King Francis II of France, died in 1560. This was a period that saw her marriage to Lord Darnley and the birth of her only child, later James I of England/James VI of Scotland. Following Darnley's murder in 1567 and her hasty marriage to the leading suspect, the Earl of Bothwell, Mary was forced to abdicate and escaped to England only to be imprisoned for the remaining 19 years of her life. As the cousin and heir to Elizabeth I, she became the focus for Catholic rebellion and represented a continual threat to the future of Protestant England. After years of plots and intrigue, she was declared guilty of treason and executed on 8 February 1587.