From Byron to Bowie, London’s National Portrait Gallery turns 500 years of British history into a compelling story of flesh-and-blood people. Take, for example, mad old King George III, who would have happily kept us from fireworks and hot dogs this Fourth of July if we upstart colonials hadn’t spoiled his tea party. (A portrait of his least-favorite general hangs nearby, another guy named George.)
Speaking of kings, it’s tough to beat the story of Henry VIII for drama and intrigue. Young, athletic, intense and charismatic, Henry liked the accoutrements of kingly life, including the jewels – and the ability to remarry at will. Henry defiantly divorced or executed wives he no longer cared for. Suffering a bout of poetic justice, he died a 400-pound pus-ridden pile of paranoia.
Fans of the films “Elizabeth” and “Shakespeare in Love” will recognize Henry’s famous daughter, Elizabeth I, staring out of her portrait, a pale and stern visage. Keenly aware of the power of PR, she always looked ageless, resorting to makeup, dye, wigs, and pearls to dazzle courtiers. Clearly, the plan worked well for her, as she made England a true naval power and cultural world capital – all while keeping Protestant and Catholic animosity under control.
Elizabeth I surrounded herself with intellectuals, explorers and poets, such as Britain’s most famous literary son, also pictured in the Portrait Gallery. Here, Shakespeare seems less like a celebrity bard and more like a bohemian barfly, with long hair, a beard, an earring, an untied collar, and red-rimmed eyes.
Other famous writers hold court within the Gallery. The Romantics were a group of friends who, in the 1800s, rebelled against the clinical detachment of science and reveled in strong emotions, opium and the beauties of nature. These include John Keats (“Ode to a Nightingale”), Mary Shelley (author of “Frankenstein”), her equally famous poetic husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and their friend Lord Byron.
During this same time, Queen Victoria came to power. And rule she did, presiding over the wealthiest nation on earth, an undisputed global colonial empire. The Gallery includes a white marble statue of the queen and her husband, Prince Albert.
As the Victorian era came to an end, so did some of the most strongly held beliefs of the time. Charles Darwin, whose defeatist image seems almost modern, staring at us with basset-hound eyes and long white beard. He looks tired after a lifetime of reluctantly defending his once-shocking theory of evolution.
Other esteemed modern men and women wait on the other floors, everyone from Churchill to Virginia Woolf to Elton John to Princess Diana. To see 500 years of Britain’s history – from battles to the Beatles – there’s no better map than the world-famous faces of its distinctive subjects.
Rick Steves of Edmonds (425-771-8303, www.ricksteves.com) is the author of 27 European travel guidebooks including “Europe Through the Back Door” (published by Avalon), and host of the PBS-TV series Rick Steves’ Europe, airing weeknights at 7 p.m. on Channel 9.
Visiting the Portrait Gallery
A quick visit to the National Portrait Gallery is easy – and free. It’s at St. Martin’s Place, 100 yards off the famous Trafalgar Square. Start at the top floor and work chronologically down to modern times on the ground floor. Visit www.npg.org.uk for more information.
Near the Portrait Gallery, you’ll find two more tourist-worthy attractions: the National Gallery (a museum of Western European paintings) and the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, where you can take in a free lunchtime concert and try its tasty Cafe-in-the-Crypt).
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