The London Reviewer

Art heads-up: National Portrait Gallery – two free exhibitions worth checking out
St Martin’s Place, London, WC2H 0HE
National Portrait Gallery – map
By: Alexa Williamson

George Catlin’s Native American portraits and paintings
7 March to 23 June 2013
Admission: free
NPG official information: George Catlin exhibition

Commentary: NPG has brought together some beautiful portraits and paintings by the 19th century American artist George Catlin, with the exhibition being a good-size – ie a few small rooms. Worth a wander through to learn about Catlin and also get a feel for what Native American people and their lives were like during the time period within which Catlin painted. Lots of reds and earth tones used in the exhibition. Catlin’s style and pictures are not exceptionally as much of a “realism” but more for telling stories about the people he is portraying. They also have many bright colours, earth tones and soft lines that lend well to a story-telling type of art/portraiture.

Official information (NPG website):
“During the 1830s Pennsylvanian-born artist George Catlin (1796-1872) made five trips to the western United States to document the Native American peoples and their way of life. The resulting portraits have become one of the most extensive, evocative and important records of indigenous peoples ever made.

Catlin was also an entrepreneur and a showman and, inspired by his encounters, he created an ‘Indian Gallery’ that toured America and Europe during the next ten years. This exhibition of over fifty portraits will be the first time that they have been seen together outside America since returning there in the 1850s. They will be displayed to suggest the sense of spectacle created by Catlin and demonstrate how he constructed a particular image of American Indians in the minds of his audience.”

King Henry VIII and Catharine of Aragon, both c 1520, artists are unknown - two amazing Tudor paintings seen together for the first time
25 January to 1 September 20113
Admission: free
NPG official information: King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon portraits

Commentary: Both of these paintings are beautiful, easy to locate within the gallery and worth going to go see. The painting skill, colours used, detail and way the subjects are captured is amazing. The colours and fine detail are what make them so amazing, despite them being straightforward paintings. Currently part of the first Tudor Room (ie Room 1 on the second floor), they are great partners together.

Interesting research on the two’s relationship (in terms of who Catherine was/her position in English History) – from Catherine of Aragon’s entry at Wikipedia: Catherine of Aragon (16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was the first wife of Henry VIII, who she married in 1509. [However, she was originally the wife of Henry VIII's brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales, who she married in 1501, but he died five months after this.]

“By 1525, Henry VIII was infatuated with Anne Boleyn and dissatisfied that his marriage to Catherine had produced no surviving sons, leaving their daughter, the future Mary I of England, as heiress presumptive at a time when there was no established precedent for a woman on the throne. He sought to have their marriage annulled, setting in motion a chain of events that led to England’s break with the Roman Catholic Church.

When Pope Clement VII refused to annul the marriage, Henry defied him by assuming supremacy over religious matters. In 1533 their marriage was declared invalid and Henry married Anne on the judgment of clergy in England, without reference to the Pope. Catherine refused to accept Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and considered herself the King’s rightful wife and queen, attracting much popular sympathy.

Despite this, she was acknowledged only as Dowager Princess of Wales by Henry. After being banished from court, she lived out the remainder of her life at Kimbolton Castle, and died there on 7 January 1536. Catherine’s English subjects held her in high esteem, thus her death set off tremendous mourning among the English people.”

Official information (NPG website):
“A recently re-identified portrait of Catherine of Aragon, which is on long-term loan to the Gallery from Lambeth Palace, is displayed alongside a portrait of Henry VIII from the same period. The portrait of Catherine of Aragon has undergone extensive conservation treatment, which has revealed the green damask background in the painting, and the original decorative scheme on the frame. Both paintings are likely to be examples of the type of portrait of the king and queen that would have been produced in multiple versions, some of which would have been paired in this way.

Further information:
National Portrait Gallery (official site)
George Catlin (Wikipedia)
King Henry VIII (Wikipedia)
Catherine of Aragon (Wikipedia)

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