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.

 

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026

The Call for Entries for the HSFK Portrait Award 2026 has been published.

Artists aged 18 and over are invited to submit entries of painted portraits to this prestigious annual competition and exhibition which is run by and held at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

The deadline for entries is 22.00 (GMT) on Tuesday 6th January 2026

Those which are shortlisted will be displayed in the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery held between 25 June and 7 October 2026. 

Very many artists who have succeeded in being selected for this exhibition in the last two decades started out by reviewing my summary of the call for entries! I know because they told me when I met them at the Awards Ceremonies and the press views (2008-2025).

The highly successful competition aims to encourage 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 40,000 entries from more than 100 countries, and the exhibition has been seen by over 6 million people.  

Summary of Key Information about the Call for Entries

Note: Anybody who thinks I'm going to repeat four totally unmemorable names every time I write about this competition is mistaken. There was a reason the BP was called the BP!!  Hence I refer to this competition as The Portrait Award or The HSFK Portrait Award. 

I am going to start as I did last year - by highlighting the many good reasons why all aspiring portrait artists should enter this competition.

This post, written in 2023, tells you why you should enter WHY enter The Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery (London)

Why enter The Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery?

Just getting selected - of itself a very valuable addition to any portrait painter's CV - means 

• your portrait painting will hang in an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London from 25 June - 7 October 2026
• you are also eligible to win one of the prizes! You could also win one of the valuable prizes
• first prize is £35,000
• second prize is £12,000
• third prize is £10,000
• the Young Artist's Prize (for artists aged between 18 and 30) £9,000
• i.e. no increase from last year.

All selected artists aged between 18 and 30 will automatically be considered for both the Young Artist Award and the Portrait Award, but an individual cannot win both. 

The aim of the Young Artist Award is to profile their talent and support the development of their practice. I met a number of young artists at the exhibition last year.

Rachit Khandelwal (b.2004) with Finlay Trevor (b.2003) both exhibited in 2025 

and were both art students in Scotland 

(at the Glasgow School of Art and Edinburgh School of Art respectively)

The portrait is Finlay's Quest for The Mackintosh Man (2024)

Note that those shortlisted for prizes MUST attend the Awards Ceremony on the evening of Tuesday 23 June 2026.

PLUS, there is the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Artist Commission worth £14,000 

• ALL ARTISTS chosen to exhibit in 2026 and 2027’s Portrait Award exhibitions will be considered for the bi-annual Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Artist Commission, which has a value of £14,000. 
• This will be announced in 2027.

Now you have a better appreciation of the incentives - on to the practical matters......

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

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

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, 

Call for Entries: Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award 2025

You have one month left to get a portrait painted and enter the most prestigious portrait competition in the UK - the Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery

• now sponsored by Herbert Smith Freehills (and formerly known as the BP Portrait Award). 
• I now call it THE Portrait Award! 

The highly successful competition aims to encourage artists over the age of eighteen to focus upon, and develop, the theme of portraiture in their work.

First of all, I have to apologise to regular followers for not highlighting this competition earlier. The announcement of the call for entries arrived at a different time of year to when it was normall published - and I unfortunately missed it.

By way of recompense, this post is all about the call for entries and is interspersed with my photos of past winners on the night they won their award!

However that said, let's get on with what you need to know.

Ben Sullivan -Winner in 2017 
and the most successful ever artist in this competition

Summary of Key Information about the Call for Entries 

Why enter The Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery?

I wrote two posts last year which 

• provides you with the incentives to enter - see WHY enter The Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery (London)
• shows you who got selected in 2023 Selected Artists - HSF Portrait Award 2024 at the National Portrait Gallery

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. It has a first prize of £35,000, making it one of the largest for any global arts competition.

DOWNLOAD the full competition rules (PDF).

• if you get selected - which is itself a very valuable addition to any portrait painter's CV:
• your portrait painting will hang in an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London from 10 July until 12 October 2025
• AND you could also win a valuable prize
• first prize is £35,000
• second prize is £12,000
• third prize is £10,000
• the Young Artist's Prize (for artists aged between 18 and 30) £9,000
• anybody over the age of 18 (as of 1 January 2024) living anywhere in the world can enter this competition - except for previous first prize winners and those employed by the NPG or the prize's sponsors!

The Best of the Drawing Year at Christies

Every year, I make a point of going to see The Royal Drawing School's "The Best of the Drawing Year" at the annual exhibition at Christies at King Street in London.

I went this afternoon to see the 2024 exhibition.

View of one end of the exhibition on the ground floor at Christies

That's partly because when I first retired, I enrolled in classes at what was then called The Prince's Drawing School between 2005 and 2008.  You can see what I did by reviewing my blog posts back then which are labelled "Drawing a Head"

It's also because 

• I've encountered many of the alumni of The Drawing Year winning prestigious art competitions eg 
• Kathryn Maple (Sunday Times Watercolour Competition - twice and the John Moores Painting Prize) and 
• Clara Drummond (BP Portrait Award 2016)
• plus - last week - two alumni appeared in Episode 5 of this year's PAOTY.

Finally it's because it's always a very good show with lots of people finding really interesting ways to make drawings - using a variety of dry media on a variety of surfaces..

For example, this year, they seem to be rather interested in coloured pencils - but the drawings in coloured pencil that I saw are nothing like the artwork I see in for example the UKCPS Annual Exhibition.

I'm going to upload my pics to an album on my Facebook Page - but that might have to wait until tomorrow - because I need to make dinner before PAOTY Episode 6 starts!

The Best of the Drawing Year

Entrance to the exhibition

This is a selling exhibition of drawings, prints and works on paper from students graduating from the Royal Drawing School’s postgraduate programme, The Drawing Year 2024 at Christie’s, London.

It's on from today until Sunday 17 November 2024 and it's FREE admission! It's open every day between 9am and 5pm on weekdays and between 12pm–5pm at the weekend. 

You can find Christies at 8 King St, London SW1Y 6QT (the link is to a google map!). I go to St James Park and the walk across St James's Park to get to King Street - it's very pleasant! It's also near Green Park and Piccadilly tube stations

You can also see the exhibition ONLINE and buy works from 13th November at royaldrawingschoolexhibits.org - and there have already been a number of sales. Some of the young artists are doing really well.

If you can't get to Christies, then come December, there will be an exhibition of a selection of over 500 drawings, prints and works on paper by students graduating from The Drawing Year 2024 postgraduate-level programme in The Drawing Year 2024 End of Year Exhibition which is held at the Royal Drawing School between 4 December 2024 – 19 December 2024

So the current one is "Best of" and the December one is the comprehensive look at artwork produced by this year's Drawing Year Postgraduates.

The Drawing Year

The Drawing Year has changed somewhat since I first knew it. 

I was going through the profiles of those exhibiting at Christies and was very surprised to find that a very significant percentage are now postgraduates who were awarded First Class Honours wherever they graduated in a related subject.  As in "a LOT"!

You can download the Drawing Year Prospectus as a PDF from the Royal Drawing School website.

The really important thing to know is there is nothing else like this course.

• it's about drawing
• it's completely free to qualifying postgraduates who are selected
• some of its ex-students have done really well
• there's quite a few things you can also do afterwards - like residencies overseas.

So if you like drawing, then this is something you really should investigate!

WHY enter The Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery (London)

In this post I'm offering information and advice for those wanting to enter The Portrait Award Competition at the National Portrait Gallery in London (formerly known as the BP Portrait Award).

My audience for this post are all those

• who have entered in the past and want to have another go - but may have forgotten all the things it's wise to remember
• who have heard about this Portrait Award and would like to enter for the first time - and need a few tips to help their entry on its way 

What I'm going to say below is based in part on what has gone before.

See also my previous post NEW! Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award 2024 REPLACES BP Portrait Award

The Most Successful Portrait Award Artist ever!

Ben Sullivan with Ginnie and 15 month old Edie (at her second BP Awards ceremony!)

Breech! - Winner of the BP Portrait Award 2017

Oil on canvas, 820 x 400mm

The Portrait Award - in the context of other Portrait Competitions

The Portrait Award has been around since 1980 

Its reputation has grown over time and it is now generally recognised as one of the most prestigious portrait awards in the world

What makes it different?

An International Competition

Unlike other leading portrait competitions - such as the Outwin Bouchever Portrait Competition in the USA and the Archibald Prize for Portraiture in Australia - which are limited to artists in the country that hosts the award, the Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery is 

• one of a very few open to International Artists and 
• very successful in attracting a huge number of entries by international artists. 

Indeed, in the last 40+ years, artists from over 100 countries have submitted over c.40,000 entries to this Portrait Award - and some of the winners have come from countries as diverse as the USA (2012), Germany (2014), Israel (2015) and Thailand/France (2020).  Prior to 2012, winners were almost always from the UK 

The number of international artists seemed to increase a lot after I started writing about the competition on an annual basis - and showing images of the portraits as photos and videos!

See section near the end of this post with information and tips for all International Artists.

See past blog posts about this award listed at the end - which contain images of portrait paintings selected for past exhibitions.

It's NOT the Portrait Competition with the top prize

There have certainly been Portrait Competitions in the past where the prize to the winner exceeds what is on offer at the National Portrait Gallery.

For example, as I write, the top prize in The 26th International annual competition for portraiture and figurative art run by the Portrait Society of America has a top prize of $50,000 (more than £40,000).

It does however offer 

• a very generous sum of £35,000 to the winner 
• PLUS the chance to add a prestigious collectoon to their CVs - by being offered the opportunity to contribute a portrait to the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery. 

This is not the portrait which wins but rather another portrait of somebody who is a significant person in the UK - and is commissioned by the NPG at some stage after the win.  

It should also be noted that ONLY 60% of artists have been awarded a commission in addition to the cash prize. This can be for a variety of reasons - but an obvious one is that an artist needs to be suitable for the person whose portrait needs painting - and sometimes need to be in the same country at a time convenient to the person being painted.

Portrait Award Winners

Oddly, the artists who have won the Portrait Award and have then gone on to complete a commission for a portrait are NOT currently listed on the NPG website

They are however listed on this blog in a post I created in January (because I kept being asked about what's happening to the award!)

TIP: READ Winners of the National Portrait Gallery's Portrait Award + Commissions

A number of the past winners have gone on to become well known contemporary artists eg. Humphrey Ocean(1982); Alison Watt (1987), Tai-Shan Schierenberg (1989), Stuart Pearson Wright (2001) - who subsequently did a portrait of JK Rowling for the NPG,  Paul Emsley (2007) - who subsequently painted the Duchess of Cambridge for the NPG, Miriam Escofet (2018) who has subsequently painted a number of eminent people.

Sponsorship

Its sponsors since 1980 have included

• 1980-1989 - Imperial Tobacco / John Player (a tobacco company / brand name)
• 1990-2020 - BP (an oil company)
• from 2023 - Herbert Smith Freehills (a legal firm whose clients include BP and the National Portrait Gallery.

Age Limit

When sponsored by John Player and subsequently through the early years of the BP sponsorship, The Portrait Award was known for being a competition limited to those under the age of 40. 

However in 2007 as I was beginning to write about The Portrait Award (see all my blog posts at the end of this post), the competition was opened up to all international artists aged 18 and over (prior to entry) - and the range of experience and styles increased exponentially.

TIPS about entering The Portrait Award

My past Call for Entries Posts (see the end) contain LOTS of tips about entering.

Here's a round-up of aspects worth thinking about

Winners of the National Portrait Gallery's Portrait Award + Commissions

This is a list of 

• ALL the artists who have ever won the Portrait Award organised by the National Portrait Gallery in London 
• PLUS a link to ALL the commissions offered as part of their First Prize.

The list of past winners has been removed from the BP Portrait Award website. It's to be hoped that the National Portrait Gallery will provide evidence of who won what and when on a new page on its website at some future date. 

The most successful Portrait Award Artist ever! (see below for why)

Ben Sullivan with Ginnie and 15 month old Edie (at her second BP Awards ceremony!)

Breech! - Winner of the BP Portrait Award 2017

Oil on canvas, 820 x 400mm

Portrait Commissions

The NPG website records one of the original objectives of the Portrait Award - that of developing a programme of commissions of notable people in the UK.

Bryan Organ's portrait of 'Prince Charles', inaugurates an active programme of commissions. Annual Portrait Award for painters under 40 introduced and twelve portraits commissioned from Portrait Award winner s 1980-9 with support from Imperial Tobacco NPG Commissioning Portraits: Chronology 

However, National Portrait Gallery ONLY records 24 artists as Portrait Award Winners - of the 40 artists who have won the Award(!) - who have their commissioned portraits (part of the prize) listed in the records of the NPG's commissions and the permanent collection.

The other artists who won the award are no longer listed. 

Interestingly NOT all winners are invited to produce a commission!  ONLY 60% of artists have been awarded a commission in addition to the cash prize.

• There has also not been a commission awarded - which has resulted in a completed painting - between 2014-2020 - which seems like a very long time to keep advertising a commission from the NPG as part of the first prize!
• Typically international artists have not painted a portrait of a 'significant Briton' commissioned by the NPG. This is perhaps more understandable - but it's a penalty of making the competition international 

over time, the number of UK artists being selected for this competition has halved. 40th BP Portrait Award (2019) Shortlist

• Bottom line - the Award latterly did NOT fulfil one of the objectives of the original award - see Sponsorship of the "BP Portrait Award" competition has ended.

Portrait Award Winners

'Making A Mark' provides comprehensive records (see BP Portrait Award category) of who won what and when going back to 2008.  

BELOW is a list 

• The name of the award winner - by Sponsor, Title of the Award and Year
• The names of artists in bold included embedded links to my reviews of the announcement of the prizewinner
• identifies the commissioned portrait and links to its page on the NPG website
• Plus includes videos I made of interviews with award winners in recent years.

Seven Portraits: Surviving the Holocaust at the Queen's Gallery

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day - and a new exhibition has opened at the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace.

Seven Portraits: Surviving the Holocaust

This special display has been 

• commissioned by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales - who is Patron of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust,
• pays tribute to the stories of seven remarkable Holocaust survivors, each of whom has in recent years been honoured for services to Holocaust awareness and education.
• is on view at the Queen's Gallery every Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday until Sunday, 13 Feb 2022.

The Prince of Wales, who is Patron of the National Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, commissioned seven leading artists to paint the portraits as a living memorial to the six million innocent men, women and children who lost their lives in the Holocaust and whose stories will never be told. The profoundly moving portraits, which will become part of the Royal Collection, stand as a powerful testament to the extraordinary resilience and courage of those who survived.

Duchess of Cornwall with Holocaust survivor Helen Aronson (centre) 

and her family, and artist Paul Benney (right) beside the portrait of Helen 

during an exhibition at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London, of 

'Seven Portraits: Surviving the Holocaust'

Sitters and Artists

The sitters and artists are:

• Helen Aronson BEM painted by Paul Benney
• Lily Ebert BEM painted by Ishbel Myerscough

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ishbel Myerscough (@ishbelmyerscough)

• Manfred Goldberg painted by Clara Drummond - who I interviewed back in 2016 Interview with Clara Drummond - Winner of BP Portrait Award 2016
• Arek Hersh painted by Massimiliano Pironti - who won 3rd prize in the BP Portrait Prize 2019 and who I'm photographed with in this post and who I wrote about in BP Portrait Award 2018 - Artists with their paintings. It'll be lovely to see him again in the BBC documentary tonight (see below)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Massimiliano Pironti (@massimilianopironti)

• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch - a surviving member of the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz - painted by Peter Kuhfeld RP NEAC
• Rachel Levy painted by Stuart Pearson Wright 
• Zigi Shipper BEM painted by Jenny Saville RA

It was a great privilege to paint this portrait of Rachel Levy as part of the exhibition, Seven Portraits: Surviving the Holocaust,⁰runs from Thursday, January 27th until Sunday, February 13th 2022⁰at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace. pic.twitter.com/yorL92NnX1

— StuartPearsonWright (@StuartPWright) January 27, 2022

You can see:

• three of the portraits on the exhibition web page
• a documentary programme Survivors: Portraits of the Holocaust
  about the commission at 9pm tonight on BBC2 . It traces the year long project. 

Throughout the programme, we hear the testimonies of the remarkable men and women who were children when they witnessed one of the greatest atrocities in human history, as well as meeting the artists as they grapple with their paintings. We see some of the sittings and witness the touching friendships that have emerged between artist and sitter over the course of nearly two years. 

The finished portraits, destined for the Royal Collection, will be unveiled at the Queen’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace. They represent pain and loss as well as dignity and hope, and serve as a lasting reminder of horrors which will one day be lost to living memory.

Count the number of art competitions that no longer exist....

The only thing that is certain in this world is "change".

Which is why, one of the things that is certain in the art world is that art competitions change over time.

What's surprising me right now is just how many of the more major competitions in the UK have completely disappeared in recent time. 

• I last wrote about this prior to lockdown back in early 2020 in The Disappearing Art Competitions 
• Since when we've had confirmation more have been lost and the art competition 'maketplace' has changed significantly in the UK.
  

I thought it was time for AN UPDATE. Below I list those art competitions

• which will not be taking place in 2021
• which still exist and will take place
• those replacing past competitions
• minor art competions

plus why art competitions are important to artists.

By way of a preamble, I am absolutely convinced this is all about two things:

FIRST we're still experiencing coronavirus interruptus syndrome, i.e. the very long "stall" associated with not knowing when things are going to get back to normal. Right now I don't expect thing to approach normal until 2022 - but I do also expect people to be planning for this right now!

SECOND there is an absolute DEARTH of key components for a prestigious art competition. These are:

• key people whose networks enable them to prize out sponsorship money from corporate bodies which can afford it
• strategic thinking within some regional museums - in relation to the traffic which can be generated by a good art competition
• organisations which want to be associated with significant art prizes.
• organisations with expertise and practical experience in developing efficient and effective art competitions with significant prizes (i.e. why are we losing all these top art competitions?)
  

By way of contrast, I am also noticing that some national art societies are getting very good at generating / replacing very good levels of sponsorship for prizes for their open exhibitions.  

• I now highlight clearly those national art societies which people should take a close look at on the basis of prize money alone.
• This should make artists think about whether they are applying for the right  open exhibitions!  PROMPT to my recent client: this is what I was talking about! :)

Art Competitions that no longer exist in 2021

BP Portrait Award

The last BP Portrait exhibition in the NP