The National Portrait Gallery’s summer exhibition explores the creative encounters between artists and their sitters, bringing together work by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Holbein, and Rembrandt. Here is what critics have been saying about the exhibition:
The Independent: **** ” They have a breathing immediacy about them. We feel we are but a warm breath away, even when we stand removed. They buttonhole us, just as the sitters have themselves been buttonholed. We are eyeball to eyeball.”
The Guardian: *** “The exhibition’s premise is only partly fulfilled. Holbein’s drawings give a genuine and electrifying sense of encounter between artist and subject. They make 16th-century people uncannily alive. ”
The Telegraph: **** “Given the somewhat amorphous nature of the concept behind the exhibition – this is not a show devoted to a single master, country, or even period – its shape is, admittedly, a little loose.”
Culture Whisper: **** “The Encounter is an accessible introduction to Renaissance portraiture for young and old. ”
Making a Mark: “This is not a blockbuster type of exhibition – but it does fill two rooms and a couple of ante rooms – and it does include some very special drawings.”
The Upcoming: **** “The Encounter is not a big exhibition, but the works on show are definitely worth lingering over.”
Evening Standard: ***** “The fragility of these drawings means that they rarely see the light of day, so this show is quietly unmissable.”