Tourist Tuesday: National Portrait Gallery

Yesterday I had the day off from work. As I sat around watching TV and waiting for the Tesco guy to deliver my groceries, I pondered what I should do with my day. I decided to try my luck and go to the lottery for Book of Mormon tickets (a show written by the creators of South Park) and I thought if I’m going to go to central London I might as well do something more touristy.

I decided to go to the National Portrait Gallery, which is just a quick walk from the Prince of Wales Theatre (where Book of Mormon is showing). Ten years ago when I first came to London as a tourist backpacking through Europe on my gap year I didn’t want to go to the National Portrait Gallery. I thought, “pictures of people? Boring.” And I pretty much continued to think portraits were boring until I worked at Live It Learn It. While at LILI I went to the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery about a dozen times with the purpose of teaching children that portraits tell stories about the sitter… if you know how to read the portraits. After that I was into portraits, because they can be so fascinating. I promise. Here’s an example. 

Looking at the portrait above, I didn’t know who this woman was, but I knew she was painted as Athena/Minerva, the goddess of wisdom. And the way you can tell is the shield, the book, and Medusa’s face in the middle of her chest. These are all traditional symbols of Minerva. When I read the label text I found out that this woman is Elizabeth Carter,the portrait is called Elizabeth Carter as Minerva, and she was one of the most intelligent and educated woman of her day. She was known for writing poetry, novels, and translations. So, smart lady shown as goddess of wisdom. It all makes sense.

A lot of the museum is done chronologically with rooms that are somewhat thematic. There are loads of rooms with portraits of serious older men with long wigs, sitting straight up, and staring meaningfully at the viewer. In the Stuart room about Charles II, almost all the portraits are of these types of men. And then there’s this portrait of what I can only describe as a ghostly nude. The sitter was one of Charles II’s mistresses and this painting was meant to be hung privately. With the exception of this painting, the whole room was so serious, but all the labels said that Charles was known for his loose morality and that he had something like 14 illegitimate children with various mistresses, but no legitimate heir.

I also love portraits because of how people choose to be portrayed. In the photos below, from left to right, we’ve got James Joyce, Amy Johnson, and T.S. Eliot. For Joyce, the painting style is abstracted, but the pose seems realistic. To me, this could be a portrayal of what he actual was. I also like that the painting is a little bit blurry – for me it makes me think of the confusing stream of consciousness novel Ulysses or also the confused searching for self Stephen Dedalus in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. To me, the portrait shows both who he was and what he did. Amy Johnson was an English pilot who helped pave the way for women in flight. This portrait I think she looks somewhat like a glamorous woman in a fur, but the coat also has that nod to traditional pilots jackets. I think the portrait is a cool way to give us clues about who she was. And finally, T.S. Eliot whose painting, I think captures a mood rather than what he actually looked like. The way he wrote was modern, different, and didn’t follow convention and his portrait shows that in a way a realistic portrait could not.

There were of course a number of royal portraits. Many of  them are opulent and formal, like this one of Queen Victoria. She’s just so beautiful, young and regal. But compare that to the family portrait of the current Queen and her family in 1950, and it’s still elegant but more like a regular family having a meal together.

The last portrait I want to talk about is of Simon Weston. He was chosen to have his portrait in the museum through The People’s Portrait, which was a collaboration between the museum and a TV show called The One Show. Viewers voted from 12 finalists and Simon Weston was chosen. West was part of the Welsh Guard and in 1982 he suffered sever burns when he was aboard the Royal Fleet Auxilary Sir Galahad. Many of his colleagues lost their lives and he had to undergo major surgeries after the fire. It’s a pretty incredible story, and pretty cool that’s he is featured in a major museum.

I took loads more pictures of all kinds of people. It was really a fascinating visit. There was even a whole Tudor exhibit (my favorite!) but I couldn’t take any pictures int here. I wasn’t able to find A.A. Milne’s portrait. I was disappointed because he’s photographed with the real Christopher Robin (his son) and the original Winnie the Pooh. I didn’t know they were real, so that would’ve been cool to see.

I left the museum about 4:45 to head over to the theatre to enter the lottery for Book of Mormon tickets. The way it works is 2 1/2 hours before the show, people can enter their name into a big drum. Two hours before the show, someone picks names. They then lottery off 21 tickets each for £20 and all IN THE FRONT ROW. I’ve gone to the lottery once before and wasn’t picked, so I didn’t have high hopes. But, I thought a cold Monday in January couldn’t be that crowded.

So at 5:30 I waited with the crowd when finally someone came out to call names. He hyped the crowd a bit and then started the drawing. I was counting along with how many he was giving out..2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and then I heard it –

“From LONDON! We have Mariel…” It was me!! My name was called!

So I ran in, showed my ID and texted Ryan: I WON! As he texted me back for details my phone died. The warder in the lobby wouldn’t let me use an outlet to recharge. I ran to Starbucks and I couldn’t get to an outlet. Ran to Pret a Manger and it was so small there was no outlet. Finally, KFC came through and I called Ryan.

“I WON!” I was so excited. So we met up for a quick dinner and a bubble tea and then had an impromptu date night. Our seats were incredible! We had so much leg room. We could see the musicians in the pit too. I loved seeing the conductor be so expressive – and also play the keyboard as he led the band. The show itself was so funny and the dancing was amazing. And did I mention, it was so hilarious? It really was hilarious.  All in all, a really nice Monday.