Do charcoal drawings hang in National Portrait Galleries?

There's a fair few artists who would like to see portraiture embrace a wide range of media for portraits. 

If you, as an individual, are commissioning a portrait then you ca choose the artist you want and the media you would prefer it to be done in. For example, as an ex dry media artist (who used coloured pencils and pastels + pen and ink), I'd probably want mine in dry media.

This is about:

• considerations for commissions of charcoal artwork by National Portrait Galleries
• examples of charcoal drawings 
• in the collection of the NPG
• hung on display in the NPG

Considerations for Commissions by National Portrait Galleries

However, if you are commissioning for an important collection eg a National Portrait Gallery you might encounter a few more considerations relating to hanging, movement and conservation. 

This became a point of discussion on my Facebook Page following publication of my review of Review: Episode 4 Portrait Artist of the Year 2026 which was won by Manny Woodard. 

Two portraits by Manny Woodard - displayed in Final of
Episode 4 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2026
(left) Self portrait submission (right) portrait of actress Arti Shah

After the discussion, I took a look at the actual collection of charcoal artworks in the National Portrait Gallery.

Charcoal artwork in the National Portrait Gallery Collection

Here are a few facts

• there are over 220,000 artworks in the collection - dating from the 8th century to the present day
• of these, only 118 are in charcoal
• of these, only 4 are on display.

So that's 

• 0.05% of the collection comprises charcoal artworks
• 0.002% of the collection is charcoal artwork hung in the galleries

I've talked to NPG people about this in the past. There is no question that they prefer

• paintings to drawings re artwork hung in the galleries (much easier to look after and move)
• drawings in media which does not fade or move (eg graphite) to pastels and charcoals which can "drop" if not fixed properly.
• another critical issue for works on paper is the quality of paper used. Generally they are only shown for limited periods as a lot depends on the ability of the paper to withstand deterioration over time. One of the main reasons why artworks on paper are always glazed.

Which is not to say painted artworks do not have their own problems too! Much conservation time is spent on those which have paint surfaces which cracked (and dropped) - including early acrylics which became notorious for cracking when used by those who hadn't taken the trouble to understand their properties and how best to use them.

Charcoal Artworks on Display at the NPG

Notably one of the four charcoals on display is a self portrait by Barbara Walker MBE RA. Her drawing is in conte and charcoal.

You can see it in Room 30 on Floor 1 at the National Portrait Gallery
This is the same image on her website

This is what the label says 

Born in Birmingham to Jamaican parents, Walker is a figurative artist drawing on public archives and art collections to raise questions around representation and belonging. As instances of black absence in Western art history are the overriding focus of her work, this is a rare self-portrait capturing a contemplative moment in the artist's career. Borne out of a recent residency in Venice, Walker turns inwards to visualise herself in dialogue with the city as 'being an anonymous figure in a city of endlessly shifting light, water and reflection'.
29 June 2026

This is what her website says about her work

Growing up in Birmingham, her experiences have directly shaped a practice concerned with issues of class and power, gender, race, representation and belonging. Her figurative drawings and paintings tell contemporary stories hinged on historical circumstances, making them universally understood and reflecting a human perspective on the state of affairs in her native Britain and elsewhere. About Barbara Walker 

and 

While Walker has often referenced archival material to confer visibility on the lives of others, in these new works, the artist herself becomes the central subject. She drew inspiration from Old Masters including Veronese, in particular his use of light, and Tintoretto, whose employment of tone and exaggerated perspective to create a sense of unfolding drama, was especially influential. An unexpected engagement with the Italian Rococo painter Rosalba Carriera, acclaimed as a pastel portraitist who often portrayed visitors to Venice, further shaped her approach to these new self-portraits and the conventions of female representation.
Victoria Miro description of her self portraits in her 2025 exhibition

You can see more of her drawings in charcoal on her website

She has a VERY long list of solo and group exhibitions to her name.

She is particularly accomplished at wall drawings - and if you ever get a chance to see any of her artwork, you should definitely visit. It's absolutely "knockout" - my technical term for artwork I find particularly impressive.

My guess is she will win the Turner Prize at some point. She was shortlisted in 2023 and I have absolutely no doubt she will be shortlisted again in future.

Given her status, there is no question that the NPG needed to have an artwork by her and preferably a self portrait

The other three charcoal drawings currently on display are:

20th Century Collection

• Maeve Gilmore ('Self-Portrait with Charcoal')
• Sue Dunkley ('Self Portrait')

21st Century Collection

• Salman Toor ('The Artist II')
• Plus the Barbara Walker drawing

Other Charcoal Drawings in the NPG Collection

There are no charcoal drawings in collections relating to 17th century and before

Georgian and Regency (1714 to 1837)

• There are three drawings

Victorian and Edwardian (1837 to 1910)

• There are 21 drawings

Some of the older charcoal drawings in the NPG Collection

I also checked out some other Galleries

• The National Gallery of Ireland has 49 charcoal drawings - most of which are drawings of heads and most might be best characterised as "studies" or preliminary drawings
• The Portrait Gallery in National Galleries Scotland is impossible to interrogate re specific aspects of its collection. There again its collection is relatively small.
• The National Museum of American History (Smithsonian) has a number of portrait drawings in charcoal - with more diverse styles of drawing demonstrated than those I've seen in collections to date.
  
  

Postscript

Interestingly I did find out how the PAOTY commissioning process works when I read the text for the Brogan Bertie portrait of Lorraine Kelly - which included

Credit line: Commissioned by Sky Arts and presented to National Galleries of Scotland in 2024

Which means the £10K is provided by Sky Arts and not the Institution - which is what I always thought it must be. The Museum/Gallery is not therefore the agent that commissions. Althought their rules apply to whether it gets hung and for how long!