The National Portrait Gallery: Eight of my favourite women

There’s a curious conundrum at the heart of Britain’s National Portrait Gallery. The institution collects people, as recorded by art. So as you walk around the rooms, are you looking at historic individuals, or at paintings?

These are certainly not “the best” paintings in British history; they can (by definition at least) be found next door in the National Gallery. (The strong presence of Sir Peter Lely here, and his total absence in the rooms overlooking Leicester Square demonstrate that.) Yet these are not (mostly) a photographic record, rather an image that is a blend of what the artist saw and (usually) what the sitter wanted him to see.

Yet somehow, these two sides of the collection do come together. When I pick out my “favourite women of the NPG” I am looking at the paintings – these are the faces that through which I can find something of the woman behind them, and I like what I find. A little research reveals, however, that they were also great characters, with real achievements to their credit. Somehow you can identify, even from a flattering, fashionable portrait, those who were more than a vapid aristocrat or a lucky courtesan.

This listing is by date, which also conveniently makes a trail through the gallery, starting at the top floor and working down. It is entirely personal – by all means add your own favourites in the comments.

Mary Neville, Lady Dacre (1524-c.1576), painted by Hans Eworth, probably early in the reign of Elizabeth I, after she had succeeded in having the family title restored to her son, after her husband had been executed. Statuesque might be the polite adjective for Lady Dacre; she’s painted with one double chin, which probably meant she had several. Her lush auburn hair is tightly combed behind a lavishly pearled, black velvet head-dress. She looks stern and formidable, but satisfied, like a woman who has achieved her life’s work. A short biography. (Gallery 2)

Mary Beale (1633-1699) – the only self-portrait in this collection. She’s self-contained, but there’s just a slight turn-up at the corners of her mouth – and her hand rests on a portrait of her two sons, sitting unframed at her side. Her palette hangs on the wall behind. There’s nothing boastful about it, but also nothing uncertain. You wouldn’t think she was about to set out to become a career woman – she’s usually called Britain’s first female professional portrait painter. (Gallery 6)

Flora Macdonald (1722-90), painted by Richard Wilson. She’s perhaps one of the most generally famous on the list, as the woman who helped “Bonnie Prince Charles” escape after the battle of Culloden in 1746. This is a painting that tells the tale, with a boat speeding away in the distance behind her. She’s painted in a polite blue satin gown, with a tartan bow decorously covering her decolletage, and a frail frill of lace around her neck. They’re matched with a butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-my-mouth expression, but there’s a subtle glint in her eye and a slight twist to her lip that says: “Don’t mess with me!” More on the story here. (Gallery 4)

Catherine Macaulay (1731-1791), painted by Robert Edge Pine. The historian, who wrote an influential eight-volume history of the Civil War and Restoration is shown as a Roman matron, leaning casually on a stack of the five volumes of her work she had completed then. The artist has certainly not made her a traditional beauty, but given her the elongated, aquiline features of a Roman aristocrat. More on her here. (Room 12 – high on the left of the entrance.)

Hannah More (1745-1830) painted by Henry William Pickersgill. The conservative social campaigner is shown as an elderly, but certainly still actively intelligent old woman, one who’s ordered him not to flatter her. She’s painted holding a letter from William Wilberforce – this is a woman who will never retire.(Gallery 20)

Louise Jopling (1843-1933), painted by Sir John Everett Millais. This is the face of a woman who has seen a lot of the world, and not just its flasher side. The daughter of a Manchester railway contractor, she studied art in Paris and supported herself with her art after her first marriage collapsed. She established her own art school in London and backed the suffragettes. And she stands that so classically Victorian ramrod straight – you really wonder how they managed it! (Gallery 24)

Dame Maud McCarthy (1859-1949) This is a simple, sober portrait, yet there’s real strength in the eyes of the woman who started her military nursing career in the Boer War and ended up as Matron-in-Chief to the British Forces throughout World War I. There’s also a touch of a smile on her lips – she might be a favourite scholarly aunt. (Gallery 30)

Germaine Greer painted by Paula Rego in 1995. If you’ve ever seen this painting, you’re unlikely to forget it. Greer perches on the edge of a couch, wearing a red tunic that suggests medieval life, staring intently away from the viewer at some distant point. This is a painting that suggests power and energy, and determined unconventionality, an effect increased by the unconventional medium of pastel on paper on aluminium. (Gallery 37)

As an alternative, or addition, the gallery itself suggests a Creative Women Trail. (It includes Mary Beale, Louise Jopling and Germain Greer from the selection above.)

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The main gallery website. Entry to the main exhibition is free.