Florence Nightingale at 200


Poignant display at the National Portrait Gallery looking at pictures of Florence Nightingale to mark 200 years since her birth.

In just a couple of display cases the pictures explored not only her work in the Crimean War but also her later life as a campaigner but invalid. It looked at how she was upheld as an exemplar of female virtue but had an aversion to the idea of celebrity and so did not sit for many portraits.

This delightful sketch was by James Barrett, who was sent to the Crimea in 1856 to paint a portrait of Nightingale. She wouldn’t sit for him so instead he had to rely on sketches like this make of her while she worked. The resulting picture “The Mission of Mercy” was hanging in the room next door.

As well as a medal there were also two photographs of her as a young woman and aged 71 looking Queen Victoria like. Nearby stood a lovely bust of her and the whole display was in a room of portraits of significant Victorian women which was a nice touch.

Closes 1 May 2020

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