National Portrait Gallery, 1

It's close to Trafalgar Square, but every time we've walked past it in recent years it's been closed for extended renovation. This time, however, finally, it was open and we leapt at the opportunity. There are important portraits of important people all over the UK--great houses, National Trust sites, other museums--but we've always assumed that the best of the best would be in the National Portrait Gallery. The National Portrait Gallery in the US is far more than just portraits, and we had hoped that the British version might be similar. We were there a couple hours, completed only the top floor...Tudors to the end of the 18th century...and I'll post just a fraction of what we saw. Especially for the 16th century portraits, the authorship and provenance are often problematic, and I'll omit such matters. We'll be back for the exciting conclusion.

Famous red-head

Her long-standing beau, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester; according to
some movies we've seen, which were based on a true story

Mary Queen of Scots

Sir Walter Raleigh, famous in North Carolina

The Ditchley portrait of Elizabeth I

Sir Francis Drake, world traveler

William Cecil, Elizabeth's principal advisor in the
earlier years of her long reign; later Baron Burleigh;
Burleigh House is one of the really great ones...

Sir Francis Walsingham, principal advisor in later years,
spymaster and persecutor of Catholics, especially Mary
Queen of Scots

Lady Jane Grey (the chronology gets a bit messed up from here;
my bad)

The Younger Holbein's cartoon for one of his famous portraits
of Henry VIII

Richard III; found under a carpark

Anne Boleyn; with head

Thomas More family for all seasons

The aforementioned "pretty witty" Nell Gwyn

Oliver Cromwell; including warts

Very young poet John Milton; so fair, at Cambridge
they called him "our lady of Christ's College"

Diarist Samuel Pepys

Charles I; with head

Sir Anthony Van Dyke self-portrait

Poet and playwright Ben Johnson

Last and most famous of all, Shakespeare; thought
to be the only likeness of him painted during his lifetime;
the National Portrait Gallery's very first acquisition...