ART: National Portrait Gallery Launches New Book of Pets in Portraits
Celebrating the UK’s ongoing love affair with our pets, the National Portrait Gallery is launching a new book – Pets in Portraits, telling the remarkable stories of the famous and historic owners, and their prized pets that can be spotted peeking out the frames of over 80 paintings and photographs from the Gallery’s Collection.
Originally published asThe Face in the Corner in 1998, the book is being reissued and updated this year, including intriguing images from the Gallery’s collection like Anna Pavlova and her pet swan Jack, Wallace Simpson’s pug Dizzy and Queen Elizabeth II with Spark, one of her corgis.
Anna Pavlova with Jack, 1927
To celebrate the launch, the National Portrait Gallery are inviting owners to enter their own Pet Portrait into a competition to win great prizes, including £100 to spend in the National Portrait Gallery Shop, and see their own picture hanging in the Gallery at the launch party. Just post a picture of you and your pet, tag @NPGLondon on Twitter or @nationalportraitgallery on Instagram and add the hashtag #PetsInPortraits. Entries close 8th April and the winner will be unveiled at the launch on 16th April.
Pets in Portraits, by Robin Gibson, with an introduction by Chris Packham, published by National Portrait Gallery, is due out 9th March – £10.00, available from National Portrait Gallery Shop npg.org.uk/shop
