Simon Schama’s Face of Britain

Interesting exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery curated by Simon Schama looking at how portraiture reflects the history of Britain and it’s people.

I liked the themes of the show, power, love, fame, self and people, and the fact it was shown in rooms scattered around the gallery which made you look at the other works in the rooms around it. However in the end I’m not sure it said anything new. I’d  had seen most of the works before so there were few surprises. Maybe if I’d watched the TV series which goes with I’d have got more from it.

It felt like a show with a celebrity name to entice in people who wouldn’t normally come to the gallery. For that reason I applaud it but it didn’t have the same kick as the Greyson Perry show earlier in the year which did a similar thing.

Pictures which did stand out for me included the Annie Leibovitz of John Lennon just hours before his death, a portrait by an unknown artist of the Hobson of Hobson’s Choice and the John Kay etching of Edinburgh figures which I’d not come across before.

An interesting touch was that in the introduction area with one picture to represent each theme Schama had chosen Duncan Grant’s portrait of George Mallory under the Love heading. Haven’t we come a long way that a complex relationship between two men can represent love in a public gallery! Maybe the show is more a reflection of our times and concerns than the faces of the past it is showing.

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