Our visit to the National Portrait Gallery today was fascinating – plenty of portraits from the Tudors onwards, and the perfect amount of information beside each painting to add another layer to our morning of seeing who was who, and why they were there.

The man above is Jem Wharton (1813 -1856) painted by Liverpool artist William Daniels. This little portrait was on one of the top floors of the National Portrait Gallery, just off from rooms full of huge paintings in lavish detail of various Tudors and members of their courts. What caught my eye was the attitude staring out from the frame, the occupant so watchful of the man who would paint him.

Who was the subject? The information beside the painting told me that it was Jem Wharton, one of the ‘most successful boxers in early 19th-century Britain’, winning his first bare knuckle fight in 1833, and retiring undefeated in 1840. He’s been painted wearing boxing gloves but apparently these were only for training sessions and not actual fights. The detail that he had paused in the middle of training for the artist, made sense for me of the impression I had of his reluctance to be still and to be studied.

This was just one of the many paintings that made me pause and really indulge in the irresistible chance to wander up close to the subjects – to stand and stare without having to look away while I tried to see what the artist had seen.

I loved the visit. My two main impressions: first – the powerful propaganda potential of portraits; and second – there were a lot of portraits of men, painted by men. There were women, but they only really started to come into their own as we worked our way down to the lower floors.

If you’re thinking of going, you’ll need at least a couple of hours and you’ll probably want to go back again.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023