The National Portrait Gallery Heinz Archive, a must-know-about for all art professionals.

The National Portrait Gallery Archive dates back to the foundation of the gallery itself in 1856. It was initially set up to assist those who worked in the gallery in their research endeavours. The new modern building for the archive is in the street behind the main building, on Orange Street. It is now open to the public, by appointment.

The archive concentrates on cataloguing the production of works surrounding eminent British men and women who either produced, or sat for the printed image. Icono-graphically rich in every direction you turn, the archive contains over 6,000 reproductions of images from collections all over the world. They are arranged in boxes of sitters and artists, each box crammed with rare reproductions, and details of where the work is currently located. This is a process continually being updated, and working there you can often see volunteers (some I recognise from university!) helping to catalogue the never-ending conveyer belt of works being sold at auction houses.

The National Portrait Gallery. The Heinz Archive is to the right of the main building, down Orange Street.

Alongside this resource is a reference collection which boasts more than 800,000 items, drawings, prints and caricatures among many others. If that’s not enough to interest you, then the library also stocks over 35,000 reference books, catalogues and periodicals. One of the best things about the archive is that, unlike many of the other reference libraries in London, you do not have to fight tooth and nail for a copy or wait two days for it to be taken out of stores. It is there ready at your fingertips.

Finally, I must say that the Heinz Archive is a lovely place to work, quiet and full of interesting professionals to work alongside. It is well laid out and easy to navigate. If you find your mind wandering, there is a nice Hoppner on one wall, and a portrait of Shelley on another, both there to interest and inspire. No drab concrete walls here. The staff are friendly and always go out of their way to help you and make your job easier (which is more than I can say for the staff at the British Library). So, calling all art students, researchers, and professionals, do not miss out on this fantastic resource in the heart of London!

The Heinz Archive is open to anyone needing to study works relating to British portraiture. Open by appointment only.

Open Tuesday- Friday 10.00-17.00

Enquiries: archive@npg.org.uk

Some Reflections on Lucian Freud: The Hype and the Reality

By Ally Crossland

Nowadays, the British public are bombarded with the Lucian Freud image. His portraits seem to be everywhere, making a big splash in the exhibition world as well as the auction houses. The National Portrait Gallery’s blockbuster Lucian Freud Portraits has certainly drawn in the crowds. In fact it has been the galleries most successful show ever, receiving over 175,000 visitors through its doors. Its popularity has no doubt been helped by a visit from the ever glamorous and on trend Duchess of Cambridge. Freud has long been seen as the saviour of British Art, one of the most revolutionary artists for generations. Some claim the hype of the Lucian Freud brand has outshone the brilliance of his raw and uncompromising talent. Others feel, as one online sources comments, that Freud was an ‘ugly painter, of ugly people’.

Yet, in my humble opinion, no better accomplished and talented artist could have been given the honour of almost the entire lower floor of the National Portrait Gallery, in which to hang perhaps the most important retrospectives of the last few years. Possibly not since the Francis Bacon exhibition at the Tate in 2008 has such an important retrospective focused on the work of one British artist working in the twenty-first century.

Freud's early portrait of his first wife Kitty

From the exquisitely detailed portraits of his youth, with electrically charged eyes and doleful expressions, Freud showed prolific talent. As an artist his penetrative gaze allowed him to access the inner qualities of the sitter. He revealed the secrets about them that they would rather keep hidden, laid bare and uncompromised on the canvas.

In Freud’s later portraits he did away with any pretence of formality, stripping the sitter to the bare bones and flesh that make up what it is to be human. Whether clothed or nude, Freud’s sitters are depicted in the most brutal yet sensitive way. Contorted into uncomfortable positions, their faces un-idealised, mournful and pensive, Freud’s sitters reflect real people and emotions that can be seen and felt in today’s world.

Life model Sue Tilley and 'Benefits Supervisor Sleeping'

Two of Freud's last portraits, with 'Portrait with Hound' 2011 on the right

The bodies in Freud’s portraits become swathes of raw pigment forced onto the canvas. Faces are contorted by age or an inner complexity that will never be fully realised by the spectator. What Freud achieves is a realness that other portraitists would never dare to address. He claims the subject for himself and enters into a relationship with the sitter, part trust and part animal attraction. His later works, even the painting Portrait with Hound, painted up until Freud’s death in 2011, shares this same brutal honestly. Yet it is also beautifully poignant. This unfinished portrait finishes mid-sentence, leaving the spectator to fill in the blanks. In a sense this is quite apart from the rest of the exhibition, which successfully depicts all the different stages of Freud’s life through his paintings. The paintings, which so define Freud’s life, speak for themselves, and in my opinion find a voice within the walls of the National Portrait Gallery. They may be ‘ugly’, but in the same breath they are truly exquisite reflections of the very real people that made up Freud’s world.

Lucian Freud Portraits runs at the National Portrait Gallery until the 27th May 2012.Admission £14. Concessions £13 / £12 With Gift Aid (includes voluntary Gift Aid donation of 10% above standard price): Admission £15.40. Concessions £14.30/£13.20