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The Year of the Portrait was initiated by the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), in association with the launch of Making Faces – Eighteenth Century Style in June 2006 at Beningbrough Hall (www.nationaltrust.org.uk) in North Yorkshire. Three houses from the Partnership and the York City Art Gallery (www.yorkartgallery.org.uk) joined forces with the NPG and Beningbrough to further extend the theme of portraiture throughout the county.
Often overlooked in favour of galleries and museums, the walls of Yorkshire’s country houses display a wealth of magnificent paintings, and particularly prominent is ‘the portrait’. Whether a painting in oils or watercolour, a pencil sketch, a photograph, or a sculpture in marble or bronze, likenesses of the human face are to be found in a variety of guises throughout these houses. These likenesses can suggest particular vanities and aspirations on the part of the sitters or families.
Harewood House, Lotherton Hall and Temple Newsam hosted particular displays and events based around The Year of the Portrait project, but there was also the opportunity to enjoy the wonderful portraiture collections at Castle Howard, Brodsworth Hall, Burton Constable and Nostell Priory. See information on each of the houses for more details.
A conference was held on 17-18 November 2006 entitled Making Faces: New Approaches to Georgian Portraiture hosted by The University of York.
