Cathy's Art Diary

Small exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of pictures of contemporary actresses to compliment the current exhibition of the first actresses. It ranged from the well established actress such as Dame Judi Dench and Maggie Smith to actresses at the start of their careers such as Anna Popplewell. Some of the commentaries had comments from the actress on the work of their predecessors.

Nice exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery tracing the lives of the earliest actresses and how the profession developed. It started with risqué pictures of Nell Gwynn then looked at the actresses of Covent Garden in the 18th century who started to take on breaches rolls but were sometimes also prostitutes but also began to be writers and business women. The middle gallery looked at the actress as muse and how they became popular subjects in Royal Academy picture so of the time in their various theatrical roles. A fun gallery looked at actresses in character plus the role of amateur dramatics amongst the aristocracy. It was definitely an exhibition that you left wanting to find out more. Reviews Times Daily Telegraph Evening Standard