“Frederick Burnaby could have kept us entertained with his exploits.”
Who’d be the guests at your fantasy dinner party? To answer this irresistible question we paid a visit to our friends at the National Portrait Gallery, who helped us compile a smorgasbord of interesting, powerful and downright gorgeous contenders, with whom we’d have loved to hang out with. Great portraits reveal the person behind the face, and that’s true of all of these works. So we can tell that intrepid explorer and bestselling writer Frederick Burnaby, he of the red striped trousers, would keep us entertained with stories of his exploits as a cavalry officer. Virginia Woolf, nestled into her orange armchair, would have countered with her glowing intellect and tales of the Bloomsbury set, while famous playwright and gossip Joe Orton would bring us all back to earth with a hilarious, bawdy bump. Who would you invite?
Hang out with the great and the good. A unique collection of striking portraits from this renowned London gallery, which has been home to many of the world’s movers and shakers since 1856.
