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UNUSUAL
FACTS AND FIGURES
from the Gallery's Primary Collection of 10,000 portraits |
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Oldest dated
portrait?
Henry VII
1457-1509
Reigned 1485-1509
by Unknown artist
1505
oil on panel, arched top
16 3/4 in. x 12 in. (425 mm x 305 mm)
NPG 416
Dated 1505.
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Most important portrait?
Henry VIII; Henry VII
by Hans Holbein
circa 1536-1537
ink and watercolour
101 1/2 in. x 54 in. (2578 mm x 1372 mm)
NPG 4027
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First portrait acquired?
William Shakespeare
1564-1616
Dramatist and poet
attributed to John Taylor
circa 1610
oil on canvas, feigned oval
21 3/4 x 17 1/4 in.; 552 x 438 mm
NPG 1
Acquired in 1856; appropriately
NPG 1.
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Tallest portrait?
Statesmen of World War I
by Sir James Guthrie
1924-1930
oil on canvas
156 in. x 132 in. (3962 mm x 3353 mm)
NPG 2463
Nearly 4 metres tall.
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Biggest (and widest)
portrait?
General Officers of World
War I
by John Singer Sargent
1922
oil on canvas
118 in. x 208 in. (2997 mm x 5283 mm)
NPG 1954
Nearly 5.3 metres wide; 52,000
times larger than the Gallery's smallest portrait (see below)
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Smallest portrait?
Henrietta Anne, Duchess of Orleans
1644-1670
Daughter of Charles I
copy attributed to; possibly after Jean Petitot; Pierre Mignard
?17th century
enamel on gold
3/4 in. x 5/8 in. (19 mm x 16 mm)
NPG 1606
Barely larger than a thumbnail.
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Thinnest portrait?
Rudyard Kipling
1865-1936
Writer and poet
by Harry Furniss
circa 1880-circa 1910
pen and ink
11 1/4 in. x 2 7/8 in. (286 mm x 73 mm)
NPG 3478
Nearly 4 times taller than it is wide.
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Squattest portrait?
Edward VI
1537-1553
Reigned 1547-53, son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour
by William Scrots
1546
oil on panel, anamorphosis
16 3/4 in. x 63 in. (425 mm x 1600 mm)
NPG 1299
Nearly 4 times wider than it is high. |
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Portrait
with most sitters?
The House of Commons, 1833
by Sir George Hayter
1833-1843
oil on canvas
118 1/4 in. x 196 in. (3003 mm x 4978 mm)
NPG 54
Nearly 400 figures, 320 of which
have been identified.
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Male sitter represented
most?
William Ewart Gladstone, represented
in 65 portraits.
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Female sitter represented
most?
Elizabeth
II, represented in 50 portraits. |