The Tale of the Portrait Award Catalogue 2026 - and two major mishaps

This is about the debacle of The Portrait Award Catalogue 2026 - and why I do not have a copy.

Portrait Award Catalogue 2026 - as advertised on the NPG website

Every year I usually get the catalogue of The Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery. I use it when writing my review of the exhibition. You'll note no review to date....

However this year there have been two major mishaps

1. The Printing Error
2. The "ready to ship" date.

The Printing Error

This year, 2026, the catalogue, sponsored by Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, was found to have a serious error in the original printed version.

Now printing errors in museum publications are not unheard of

• many are relatively minor (eg a name spelt incorrectly) and 
• they are normally corrected in the next print - 
• and an errata slip put in the edition with the error.

My guess as to why the original catalogue was NOT released at all is that it the error is too significant/important - and this most likely reason is it involves the sponsor's name.

The name that keeps changing. It started as "Herbert Smith Freehills" - and last year it became "Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer".

That's important enough to stop the release of a catalogue.

The alternative might be that the colours were badly wrong. Except, as somebody who used to be responsible for producing marketing material for my professional qualification, I know that sort of error gets caught very easily at the proofs stage. So long as you have somebody competent doing the job and piping up as soon as they spot a problem. 

Approving proofs is the signal to "go to print". 

When I did it, my publications lady did all the checking - but the proofs were signed off by me after I had checked them carefully too. It's much too expensive to get wrong hence all mistakes have to be spotted!

So I can only assume that whoever was responsible for collating, drafting, designing and checking - and double checking and authorising - the catalogue proofs did not do their job properly.

That's a very expensive mistake. That's because once you have approved the proofs, you are agreeing liability for the costs of the print run. Which means NPG will be charged for that error and in effect will have paid for the catalogue twice.

For the record, I did ask what the print error - but was nobody knew and/or was prepared to say.

The "Ready to Ship" date

I was thinking of going into the NPG today to pick up a catalogue. However I wasn't optimistic it would be there (I know how long print runs take - particularly if a job is contracted out to Asian printers as many are - ships take a long time to dock!) so checked the website first.

That's when I found the page related to the Portrait Award Catalogue for sale in the shop.

Which states

Expected to ship from 29 July 2026.

That's seven weeks late - given the exhibition opened to the public on 25th June.

Which leads us to the next issue.....

Details of the Portrait Award Catalogue

The cost of the mistake

Mark Dalessio wins £35,000 Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026

American/French artist Marc Dalessio has won the £35,000 Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026. He was presented with at an Awards Ceremony at the National Portrait Gallery in London on Tuesday night.

Marc Dalassio with his award-winning portrait 

Jean-Denis, 2025 © Marc Dalessio

With a notably restrained and economical use of paint, Marc Dalessio’s Jean-Denis achieves a striking immediacy, where every mark carries weight. The judges enjoyed the subtle sliver of white from the sitter’s shirt that becomes a focal point, activating the composition. The portrait offers an empathetic depiction of its subject, conveying a timeless presence that feels both regal and understated.

The Judges Comments  

For the record, all my guesses of who would win what were CORRECT!

The two youngest award winners
- just before they announced the prizes!

Below you can see 

• photos of the artists with their portraits which were taken Tuesday evening.
• Plus a photo of them receiving their award. Apologies for the side on view. I usually pick a better spot.

[I was hoping for access to the NPG ones being taken by the photographer who was in prime position - but for some unfathomable reason, rather than being available Wednesday morning (as they always used to be) they're not likely to be available until the end of the week.
So these are the only photos of the Awards Ceremony online so far!!]

Below are the profiles of the artists and the portraits which won the prizes. 

Words about the painting and what the Judges thought are from the press release - hence quotes.

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026: SHORTLIST Announced

This is about the four artists shortlisted for the 44th edition of its prestigious Annual Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026 was  formerly known as the BP Portrait Award and before that the John Player Portrait Award - which is what it was called when I first started visiting.)

Some background

The Portrait Award has earned a reputation as one of the most important platforms for portrait painters. The highly competitive Award encourages artists over the age of 18 to focus upon, and develop, the theme of portraiture in their work. Since its inception, the competition has attracted over 50,000 entries from more than 100 countries and the exhibition has been seen by over 6 million people.

I'm pleased to see the NPG appears to have adopted my name for the competition ie The Portrait Award - as per my comment in this post last year!

Here's where I stand on the sponsor name. It's ludicrous. It's not a name which rolls off the tongue. People can never ever remember it and now they've added another name in!

Which is precisely why I will continue to refer to it as The Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery, sponsored by Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Shortlist for the £66K HSFK Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery

Selection for the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026 

This post provides you with information about the four shortlisted artists, named today by the NPG,  and shows you images of their portraits.

Some facts:

• The Call for Entries produced 1,474 entries from Artists from across the world who uploaded a photograph of their finished painting to the National Portrait Gallery’s Competitions Portal for the initial judging of digital images
• Specifically, entries were received from 63 countries. 
• All entries were judged anonymously - which means it'll be interesting to see how many artists previously selected are selected again.
• The Selection Panel is an ALL FEMALE jury and appears to be "contemporary" in nature. Its members are: 
• Melissa Blanchflower - Senior Curator at the Turner Contemporary
• Es Devlin - digital artist and set designer, ;
• Amy Emmerson Martin - Contemporary Curator at the National Portrait Gallery (previously Assistant Curator of Contemporary British Art at Tate)
• Mary Evans - artist and Director of the Slade.
• Artists who made it through the digital judging round were invited to hand-deliver or courier their work to a venue in London for a second, physical round of judging
• A total of 52 portraits have been chosen for the exhibition which opens from 25 June to 7 October 2026 at the National Portrait Gallery
• The portraits by the four artists were chosen from the 52 portraits selected for final display. 
• Prizes comprise:
• first prize of £35,000 - one of the largest awards for any global art competition. 
• second prize of £12,000 
• third prize winner will receive £10,000
• young artist (aged between 18 and 30) prize- £9,000. This prize aims to profile talent and help support the career development of a young artist - one of the original priorities of The Portrait Award. 

The Shortlisted Portraits

Only one artist has previously been selected for this award/exhibition. Which means three appear to be total newcomers - although they may have previously submitted paintings but not got selected.

Three of the four paintings are concerned with portraits of individuals with a black heritage.

The italicised quotes are from the NPG Press Release and I assume are words constructed from what the artists have said about the sitter and their process.

Note: Having researched the artists I am beginning to wonder the extent to which the Judges (and all the shortlisted artists) read the Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award 2026 Rules. Specifically 2.2

2.2 The work entered should be a painting based on a sitting or study from life and the human figure must predominate.

 

Portrait Award 2025: The 10 portraits I liked the most

This is a post about the ten portraits I like the best in the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025 at the National Portrait Gallery. 

I've been reviewing the Portrait Award at the NPG since 2008 (see end)

• I generally walk out of the Awards Night Viewing knowing which portraits have made a big impression on me - and they are not necessarily the winners. (see Moira Cameron wins the £35K HSF Kramer Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery)
• It's then interesting to go back the next morning for the Press View morning to see whether I still think the same
• I then get to think about the portraits again when I'm writing Portrait Award 2025 - Artists with their paintings - but of course that, in part, depends on whether the artist was there and could be spotted (some artists have not yet worked out yet that the buttons they are given to wear can generate them publicity!)
• I visited again earlier this month to see whether I still felt the same. This time to also make sure that I looked at every single portrait properly - because sometimes the impression you get depends on size and where they are hung - and my list changed!

I think it very likely that one of the ten portrait paintings you can see below will be the winner of the Visitor's Choice Award.

I'm also still waiting to hear which artist, from last year's exhibition and this one, has won the award of a commission by the NPG......

The Ten Portrait Paintings I liked the best

A strong "blokey" corner of the exhibition

I've got two lists. The one I wrote down after the Press View and the one I wrote when I visited the exhibition again at the beginning of this month. Nine are the same - I changed just one (and I'm not going to say which!). 

You will find bios for most of these artists in my last post about artists with their paintings.

So that says something for my taste I guess and/or the impact of the paintings listed below.

I need to emphasise that my personal view is that, in general, you need to know the person to want to hang a portrait (as opposed to a figurative painting) in your own home. It's very rare to create a portrait of a person which you would hang as art as opposed to a painting. Which is not to say portraits are not good art - but does serve to explain why portrait commissions are the life blood of most portrait painters.

It's a challenge to make people really interested in a portrait......

Those entering this competition must ponder long and hard about what makes a difference....

Do not read anything in to the order of the portraits presented below. There is nothing significant about the way they are listed, however I have decided to group them by size.

• Big
• Small
• Large Medium
• Small Medium

At this point I will comment that I think the National Portrait Gallery does all of the artists a major disservice by failing to state on the website or the label in the gallery what the dimensions of the portrait are. It essentially means online viewers have no idea whatsoever which are large and which are small.

It's one of the reasons I feel the need to do my post about artists with their portraits. That's because there is a HUMONGOUS DIFFERENCE in the size of different selected portraits - but you'd never ever know it if all you had to go on was the images on the website!

It was also impossible to buy the catalogue (which, from recollection, had the dimensions) when I went back - because they'd run out! How can you run out of a catalogue which is on exhibition for another 11 WEEKS?!! 

(PS Same thing had happened with the Jenny Saville Catalogue. I think somebody in NPG catalogue ordering needs a performance review and/or retraining!)

The Big Portraits I liked

Winding down for summer - and what I've been up to

You may have noticed I'm posting less.  This is why and what else I've been doing.

It's very much a response to 

• a remarkable run of good weather - and a marked preference for being out and about and visiting places we love (mainly gardens!) rather than indoors writing!
• an extremely busy time between May and now with various important exhibitions that I love and meeting up with lots and lots of artists I tend to only see once a year
• getting older - as very busy times - with lots of photography and lots of writing - leave me rather more tired than I'd like
• a need sometimes to take "a breather" - time out from a regular routine for more "head space"

Plus as the school holidays come along, you all disappear on your holidays! So fewer people reading and responding (via Facebook to what I post).

So this is by way of saying I'm going to continue to post through August - but it will continue to be infrequent - before September revs back into action!

Anyway, here's a few photos of what I've been getting up to since May

I've also uploaded a phenomenal amount of photos I've been taking in exhibitions to albums on my Facebook Pages since May. - see Making A Mark (FB) and Botanical Art and Artists (FB)

With three of my fellow Judges of the SBA Fellow Art Grant Award
at the Society of Botanical Art (SBA) Annual Exhibition Plantae 2025
at a special PV on 27 May

This week, I've been drafting revised guidelines and application form - for review - for the next SBA Fellow Art Grant Award which opens for applications in September - when, as Head Judge, I give an online talk about it. Which I've yet to write!

With Sarah Gardner SBAF - and her painting which was a joint winner of
the CPGFS Botanical Art Award - at the PV for Plantae 2025

August is also my month off from being Treasurer of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society!

The Society of Botanical Artists' 40th Anniversary exhibition Plantae 2025 is probably the biggest and best botanical art exhibition by an art society that I have seen in years.

See 

Portraits of Children: Yvadney and her daughter at the NPG

Yvadney Davis and her daughter will be seen by rather a lot of people around London over the next couple of months.

"Inset Day" (2025) by Yvadney Davis
- and Yvadney with her daughter at the Portrait Award Exhibition
at the National Portrait Gallery

my self-portrait exploring my feelings around being an artist mum, balancing self expression with duty, priorities… legacy.

That's because "Inset Day" - a portrait of choices to made at at home when the teachers need training (roll eyes!) - is being used as one of the feature portraits marketing the Portrait Award Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

It's also currently the feature image on the website for the exhibition!

Yvadney's daughter was at school on the morning of the Press View - so could not be there to be photographed with her mum and Mum's portrait of the two of them.  There's a very funny story about what stopped their first planned trip  to view the painting together - which I’d love to share, but I won’t!

However school has now finished and Yvadney took her daughter to the National Portrait Gallery recently to show her "her portrait" and for both of them to have their photograph taken in the NPG with the portrait! (I'm sure she's got some at home of the them both with the portrait before it made it to the NPG!)

I gather visitors were very taken with the notion that they were seeing both subjects and the artist and that they both got a lot of attention during the visit. I think you'll agree they both look like they enjoyed themselves a lot. I love watching the double takes you get from gallery visitors when you see people realising they're seeing the people in the portrait!

What with all the parents which get painted, the Portrait Award sometimes feels a bit like a family affair.

I'll be interested to see which portrait wins the Visitors Choice Award. I've got a feeling this one might in the running along with a couple of others. Although I'm much better at picking the First Prize Winners than the Visitors' Choice Award Winners!

@yvadneydavisart has a background as a fashion stylist and did her Art Foundation, Camberwell School of Art, 2000 followed by a Fashion Bachelor of Arts, Central Saint Martins, 2004 and went on to a career in fashion. During the Pandemic, she returned to her love of painting during the pandemic and recently has developed her art from a lockdown hobby to an award winning practice. She celebrates Caribbean heritage and the Windrush generation and uses old wallpaper for her support. Since taking up painting and portraiture her artwork has been selected for a number of competitions in the last three years. She also featured in the semi final of Portrait Artist of the Year 2023

Photos of children with their portrait in the NPG

I've got a bit of a history of meeting children with their parents in relation to portraits selected for the exhibition. Some of them I get to meet again a few years later when they're back again with parent to see the latest portrait selected

I think Samantha Fellows holds the "Making A Mark record for most children in a portrait photographed in the NPG by me" - when viewing the latest selected portrait! Of which more below

Portrait Award 2025 - Artists with their paintings

The popularity of my "Artists with their Portraits" post every year - in relation to the Portrait Award Exhibition - is a great incentive to get as many pics as I can.

What my photographs help you to do - which the online gallery does NOT - is to see the size of the painting relative to the artist who painted it.

Inevitably, I don't manage to capture every artist. Although I've got most....

(Mainly, I think, because very many of the artists had not yet realised that the badge they get give to wear which says "artist" on it has a PURPOSE! ie. it enables all the journalists to recognise all those who have painted a portrait in the exhibition - so you can ask for a photo!)

At least this Press Preview morning was limited to the artists and their sitters and the press. Which was a HUGE improvement on past years where all the "hangers on" came along as well and well and truly got in the way.

So here are all the portraits of Artists with their Portraits. 
WARNING: This is A MAMMOTH POST and not a quick read. You will need sustenance to get to the end!

It provides:

• my photo of the artist with their painting
• LINKS for those who might wish to view/follow their work:
• website links are embedded in the artist's name - followed by their Instagram site 
• followed by text in quotes that has been written by somebody from information supplied by the artists but the author has included a few conclusions of their own and certainly has not understood all the words they used! See if you can work out which one I mean. The answer will be on Facebook in a few days
• Summary of education and appearances in exhibitions etc.

The latter might give some insight to aspiring artists as to the level of education and experience of most artists who are selected. That said, some are self taught and for at least one artist, this is their first exhibition!

Last year I organised my photos and associated artists in groups by country they live in.  

This year I'm organising the artists into groups by the TYPE OF SITTER - as follows

• Self Portraits
• Portraits of Parents and Children
• Portraits of Women
• Portraits of Men
• Portraits of Groups

The prizewinners come at the end of their relevant group.

Hopefully this will provide some insight into the very different ways people portray people who are "similar".

Self Portraits

I'm going to start with a couple of my favourites. The first is complex and needs three images! The second has a story behind it.

Shinji Ihara (Japan)

Light and Shadow (2025) By Shinji Ihara
Oil on canvas
(his self portrait appears in the shadow at the top - and....)

Shinji Ihara was in last year's Portrait Award with an absolutely stunning painting. He's returned this year with another one.

He's getting a special spot in this post because I think I'm going to be seeing him again (and again!). 

• His paintings are always about stories and are rather like a puzzle and get more and more interesting as you study them. His colouration and tonal control are also amazing!
• Last year he produced an an immaculate painting in terms of both story and the quality of the painting - where the focal point was a white cat which had just died.

Portrait Award 2025 (Part 1) What's changed and what's not

This is my review of the HSFK Portrait Award 2025 Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery - sponsored by Herbert Smith Freehill Kramer - and its Awards Ceremony.

The view as you enter The Portrait Award Exhibition

It covers:

• how you can see the Portrait Award Exhibition - in person or online
• what's changed, what's not and what needs to!
• what I like - and what I'm less enthusiastic about

At the end are notes about

• Why I write about the Portrait Award - a short note about my personal history with this exhibition 
• followed by all the blog posts I've written about it in the last 18 years - since 2007! ( I haven't counted - but it's a lot!)

My next two posts are:

• Portrait Award 2025 (Part 2): Artists with their Paintings - which I know is much appreciated (hopefully on Sunday) and    
• Portrait Award 2025 (Part 3): "My 10 best portrait paintings in the 2025 exhibition - after I've been back to the exhibition and seen it again (probably next week) and studied the paintings in more depth. If I have time I'll also be adding in more analysis as I've done in the past around:

• size, format and colour
• type of model
• type of portrait

How to see the Portrait Award Exhibition

The Portrait Award Exhibition can be seen 

• in Gallery 2 (the very far end of the second floor)
• at the National Portrait Gallery in London
• from 10th July (today) until 12th October 2025.

The exhibition then travels to 

• the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle.
• from 28 March – 5 September 2026

You can also see it online in the Visitor's Choice Section where you can also vote for your favourite portrait.

How the numbers have changed

First of all - an important observation which may have escaped some people.

In the last 10 years, the number of entries and artists and portraits hung seem to keep on reducing.

• the number of entries have halved 
• the number of countries sending entries has reduced by a third.
• the number of artists selected have reduced from 55 to 46

Bottom line: The number of portraits now hung is a lot less than it used to be. 

Everytime the NPG reduces the numbers hung I'm very much of the view that this makes it less likely that those entering will get hung - and at some point they start asking "what's the point?". 

Around 50-55 was the norm for a very long time. This year it is just 46 paintings.  

Is it a less prestigious competition and exhibition? What's the rationale for cutting numbers?

Compare how the numbers have dropped

• 2025: Those hung this year were selected from 1,314 entries from 61 countries.

This compares to (reaching for my past blog posts and annual analysis)

• 2012: 2,187 entries received from artists in 74 different countries
• 2013: 1,969 entries from 77 different countries
• 2015: 2,748 entries from artists in 92 countries

I suggest somebody has a very long hard think about the target number of artworks to be hung if they want to retain the prestige of this competition.

Review of the Exhibition

I'm finding as I get older that the effort invested in 2 x 2 hours on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning - plus associated social media posting (eg write a blog post between getting up at 6am on Wednesday and shooting out the door to get to the press preview by 10am) leaves me a lot more tired now that I'm 70 than it did when I was in my 50s. 

The process is identical - get round as many of the 40+ artists present, take their photos, hear their story and learn about their painting - but the effort and concentration involved tends to leave me feeling slightly "wired" - as if I'd had rather a lot of coffees! Then on the third day, I end up feeling tired - which is today!

Which makes it quite interesting trying to work out what the story is re this exhibition - beyond the story of the numbers.

Moira Cameron wins the £35K HSF Kramer Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery

Moira Cameron (right) - Winner of the HSF Kramer Portrait Award
by Victoria Siddall, the new President of the National Portrait Gallery.

Four awards with a value of £66,000 were announced last night at the Awards Ceremony for the HSF Kramer Portrait Award 2025 at the National Gallery. 

The prize winners were as follows:

• First Prize £35,000: Moira Cameron for A Life Lived (Oil on canvas 2200 x 200mm)
• Second Prize £12,000: Tim Benson PPROI for Cliff, Outreach Worker (Oil on canvas, 1520 x 1220mm)
• Third Prize £10,000: Martyn Harris for Memories (Oil on board 400mm x 400mm)
• Young Artist Award £9,000: Michelle Liu for Kofi (Oil on canvas, 500 x 400mm)

Tim Benson receiving his award from Victoria Siddall

Below are the profiles of the artists and the portraits which won the prizes Words about the painting and what the Judges thought are from the press release - hence quotes.

First Prize Winner (£35,000) Moira Cameron

Selected Artists for Portrait Award 2025 at the National Portrait Gallery

46 portraits have been selected for the HSFK Portrait Award 2025 at the National Portrait Gallery. Want to see some of them before the exhibition opens? READ ON!

Those selected for inclusion in the exhibition were chosen from 1,314 submissions entered by artists from 60 countries.   

For me, it just goes to show how changing the people doing the selection changes the focus and the preferences of those judging. Many of the names I'm used to seeing on a fairly regular basis have not been selected - although some have. 

Those that are here again are very good. However, I think it might be the lowest number of previous exhibitors for some time.

We'll have to wait until the exhibition to see whether the choices made make for a better exhibition than usual - or otherwise!

The Portrait Award exhibition is at the National Portrait Gallery in London from 10 July - 12 October 2025. It used to travel but I think that has stopped with the change in sponsor.

I do this preview of who gets selected to help those who will be applying next year.

• the link in their name is to their website
• plus I include their Instagram account where identifiable
• I embed Instagram posts of their artwork where possible.

It follows on my post Shortlist for the £66K HSFK Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery - and I have not repeated information about the artists shortlisted for prizes in this post.

 

I've been reviewing this exhibition on Making A Mark since 2006 and I'll be at the Awards Ceremony in July. I'll also be publishing a review of the exhibition and pics of artists with their paintings. For all those artists who want a pic with their painting in this blog, make sure you find me on at the press review the following morning!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Artists who describe themselves as "shortlisted" for this exhibition - but who are not listed in my previous post are deceiving themselves and others. It makes you look amateurish. The only artists "shortlisted" are those who will win a prize. Everybody else is SELECTED.

Selected Artists Portrait Award 2025

Images being used to advertise the Portrait Award Exhibition
- which is a prize in itself!

The selected artists exhibiting in THE Portrait Award are, in alphabetical order:

Shortlist for the £66K HSFK Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery

This is about the three artists shortlisted for the 43rd edition of its prestigious annual Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London. 

The three shortlisted portraits are:

• Cliff, Outreach Worker (2024) by Tim Benson
• A Life Lived (2024) by Moira Cameron
• Memories (2024) by Martyn Harris

....of which more below 

(PS I've been distracted by other things going on for some days hence why this is late.)

This year’s shortlist was 

• selected from over 1,314 anonymous entries from around the world, 
• with 46 portraits in total chosen for final display 
• in a free exhibition open from 10 July to 12 October 2025

Since its inception, the competition has attracted over 40,000 entries from more than 100 countries and the exhibition has been seen by over 6 million people.

Prizes are:

• 1st prize of £35,000
• 2nd prize winner will receive £12,000 
• 3rd prize winner will receive £10,000
• the winner of the Young Artist Award will receive £9,000. This award aims to profile talent and help support the career development of a young artist.

A commission will also be awarded to an artist in a new arrangement which I very much like. My guess is it will significantly help the commission team when trying to match sitter to artist. It's always been the case in the past that those who have exhibited in the Portrait Award might be asked to do a commission.

• this is now a bi-annual award, 
• all artists chosen to exhibit in 2024 and 2025’s Portrait Award exhibitions will be considered for this commission.

Judges included:

• Professor Dorothy Price FBA - art historian and academic at The Courtauld Institute of Art;
• Maggi Hambling - visual artist; (her portraits for the NPG include one of my favourites Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin)
• Peter Brathwaite - opera singer, artist and writer; 
• Rosie Broadley - Joint-Head of Curatorial and Senior Curator of 20th Century Collections at the National Portrait Gallery
• Rosie Wilson - NPG Director of Programmes and Partnerships,