National Portrait Gallery sends Tudor and Bloomsbury portraits on UK tour

While closed for expansion and renovation until 2023, the National Portrait Gallery in London is sending its collections on tour across the UK. The museum is collaborating with four galleries for two major exhibitions. The first, 'The Tudors: Passion, Power and Politics,' opens at The Holburne Museum in Bath in January 2022, featuring 25 iconic Tudor portraits. A larger version follows at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool in May 2022 with 68 works, marking the first time such a significant number of Tudor portraits have been loaned. The second exhibition, 'Beyond Bloomsbury: Life, Love and Legacy,' dedicated to the Bloomsbury Group, opens in November 2021 at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield and moves to York Art Gallery in March 2022. The Tudor show presents portraits of the five Tudor monarchs—Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I—alongside advisors and courtiers like Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Robert Dudley, William Cecil, and Francis Walsingham. The Bloomsbury exhibition tells the story of the group of artists, writers, and creatives from the early 20th century, including Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. The gallery's renovation project, 'Inspiring People,' is designed by Jamie Fobert Architects and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, including a complete reinterpretation of the collection, new public spaces, a welcoming entrance, and a new Learning Center.