Research National Portrait Gallery London

To gain some primary research for this project I visited the National Portrait gallery to have a look at the Victorian portraiture, this is one of the best ways to look at Victorian hair and makeup as there was busts of people of the era, so you can get a full 360 view of the hairstyle.

One of my favourite things that I saw in the portrait gallery was this bust of Queen Victoria. This bust was created by Sir Francis Chantrey in 1841, this was made out of marble. This is a good way to see all the way around the hair and is a pretty close match to the hairstyle I did in an earlier post (see early Victorian hairstyles technical).



This is a portrait of Jenny Lind (1820 - 87) she was a singer and was born in Sweden; her exquisite voice, allied with rare qualities of character, aroused intense enthusiasm in British audiences following her debut in 1847. This portrait was by Eduard Magnus and was created with oil on canvas and was created in 1846. I really like this portrait as it shows the Victorian love for décolletage, with short hair to frame the face and elongate the neck.

This image is of the Bronte sisters (from left to right) Anne Bronte (1820-49) Emily Bronte (1818 - 48) and Charlotte Bronte (1816-55) These sisters were the authors of poetry and novels, published pseudonymously. Charlotte's Jayne Eyre and Emily's Wurthering Heights were published in 1847 and Anne's the Tenant of Windfell Hall in the following year. This portrait was found on the top of a cupboard  by the second wife of Charlotte Bronte's husband.

 This is a portrait of Queen Victoria painted by Sir George Hayter this was painted in 1838 and 1863. I believe the portrait was probably done for the Queens coronation as she is seen wearing the crown and holding the staff. In this picture you can see the same hairstyle is worn in this portrait is also on the marble bust of Queen Victoria.

These images are of busts of Angela Catalani (1780 - 1849) who was an Italian opera singer who came to England in 1806, she was described as 'a Roman with the regular Italian antelope face... large eyes, with a sensitive elegant nose and a lively expression. Felicia Dorothea Hemans (1973 - 1835)  who was a poet and a playright she was characterised as 'too many flowers, too little fruit.'
I again really like these busts as I was able to get a good detailed 360 look round the hair. They all show different types of buns and a variety of different curls.

I forgot to take the picture of the details of this portrait  but I especially liked the youthful fresh cheeks that are shown in the picture and the long curled flowing hair.
















This is a portrait and the supporting bust of Lord George Cavendish Bentinck (1802 - 48) he was a statesman and sportsman they are both dated 1848. I have chosen to take a picture of this because it shows how sideburns were popular at the time and also side parted hair.