Scene 24: The National Portrait Gallery

One day, after lunch with the lovely Allison Norman, a fellow Tarheel, I decided to pay a visit to the National Portrait Gallery.

Turns out, I kind of love it there.

It's a tasteful mix of the antique and modern portrait worlds, ranging from sculpture to painting to photography. There was even a black and white Hollywood exhibit going on.

Any museum where a hundreds-year old painting of Queen Elizabeth and a Mario Testino picture of Kate Moss co-exist has to be cool.

The Scary Museum Lady took a while to catch me taking pictures, so I can show you some of what I saw!

First, a little look at some research of the Jacobites (act interested). They had a whole little wing!

A little placard for people who don't know anything about them (like everyone in the museum but me):

A family tree:

A timeline of sad events:

And look! Bonny Prince Charlie:

He was supposedly 19 at the time of the sitting, but he looks about 12. This painting helps explain how he was able to flee England when the revolution failed in the guise of a woman.

Look! A staircase!

But wait! That's not all! Beyond the pillars were creepy little statues of knights and kings and priests and people who looked like they could have accomplished either great feats of evil or piousness in their lifetimes. Odd combination.

Here is a lovely statue of Queen Victoria and King Albert:

Look! Heads!

Margot Fonteyn, famous ballerina:

TS Elliot:

My favorite painting in the museum, the royal family at Windsor:

You might remember this family from The King's Speech. I like how normal they appear. I say 'appear' because it's all an illusion.

That's all I could take before Scary Museum Lady came.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon :)


-B