National Portrait Gallery, London – a quick photo tour -

London is blessed with loads of free museums and art galleries, and yesterday I took shelter from the blazing heat to take a pleasing stroll around the National Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar Square.

I arrived late in the afternoon, so the gallery was almost deserted, giving me the solitude and silence to really appreciate some of the works.

I got lost in my thoughts in the section on Victorian Britain, gazing at the faces of ruthless capitalists, talented inventors and generous philanthropists.

I spent some time looking at the portrait of the famous naturalist, geologist and biologist, Charles Darwin (above), looking old and weary at the end of a life well spent.

Ruffs galore! I love looking at the flamboyant fashions adopted by the rich and influential throughout the centuries.

Crowns everywhere.

An assemblage of busts.

I liked this portrait of Derek Jarman, entitled ‘Seer.’

The last sanctioned work by Jarman, it includes a quotation from Lorca in mirror-writing. In translation this reads: ‘Enjoy the luscious landscape of my wound … but hurry! … Time meets us, and we are destroyed.’

Admiring the art.

Painted in 1716, this 3D portrait shows East India Company Deputy Governor Joseph Collet.

A lone gallery assistant admires the artworks.

I loved this well crafted painted bust.

Purchased by the Gallery this year, Tracey Emin’s Death Mask is a 3D self-portrait cast by Emin in 2002 as an ironic reference to the autobiographical nature of her work.