Imagined Lives: Portraits of Unknown People


Intriguing little exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of portraits of people whose identities are unknown.

Often thee works had been acquired as pictures with an identity but these attributions have since been disputed. Many of the pictures were very fine and full of clues to her the person was if only we could read them such as the lady with two lovely watches.

The most unusual picture is a death bed portrait of a rather beautiful long haired young man. It seems so tragic that someone went to a lot of effort to commission this just for the identity of the subject to be forgotten.

There is an accompanying book of short stories by well known authors based on the pictures and imagining the lives of the sitters. 

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