Coram began life as a seaman, rising to the position of merchant captain. He spent ten years farming in America before returning to England in 1703. Seeing the poverty in the East End of London ...

Richard Graves was an English poet and novelist. Born in Gloucestershire, he was the son of an antiquary of the same name. Graves was a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, but lost this position ...

The Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize returns for its 17th year, showcasing the work of talented young photographers, gifted amateurs and established professionals in the very best of contemporary ...

Entries for the 2025 Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award are now open. Submit your entry by 22:00 14 January 2025. The Gallery is home to the most extensive collection of portraits in the world.

The Reference Collection is held in the Heinz Archive and Library and contains more than 70,000 portraits of important and lesser known figures in British history. The majority of these portraits are ...

In the 1820s Margaret Gillies was a pupil of Frederick Cruikshank, a Scottish miniature painter. During the first two decades of her career Gillies made large miniature portraits, and some subject ...

The inventor and entrepreneur, Richard Arkwright is one of the leading figures of the Industrial Revolution. In 1769 he patented a water-powered spinning machine that could spin a vast number of ...

Bulgarian-born writer; studied Chemistry in Vienna before emigrating to England in 1938; wrote essays, plays, autobiography and a study of crowds, but made his name with the novel, Die Blendung (1935) ...

Father of Howard Carter. Carter was an artist who specialised in animal and sporting paintings and exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions. He trained Howard in the skills of ...

The Primary Collection contains more than 12,700 portraits. Of these, over 4,100 are paintings, sculptures and miniatures. In addition, there are over 8,500 light-sensitive works on paper, shown on a ...

Following the death of his father George V, Edward succeeds to the throne as King Edward VIII, but chooses to abdicate in order to marry the American divorcee, Wallis Simpson. Edward was the only ...

Olaudah Equiano was born in Essaka, in what is now southeastern Nigeria. He was kidnapped into slavery at the age of eleven and put to work for a number of different masters in America, the West ...