The National Portrait Gallery’s celebrated painting competition returns for its 43rd year.
It has been announced that Moira Cameron has won first prize in the prestigious Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025 for her self-portrait A Life Lived.
Meanwhile, Tim Benson was awarded the second prize for Cliff, Outreach Worker, and third prize went to Martyn Harris for Memories. Michelle Liu wins the Young Artist Award for her portrait Kofi.
Each of the winning portraits can be seen on display as part of the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025 at the National Portrait Gallery until the 12th October. The exhibition features 46 portraits , selected for display by a panel of judges including visual artist, Maggi Hambling CBE; art historian and academic at The Courtauld Institute of Art, Professor Dorothy Price FBA; opera singer, artist and writer, Peter Brathwaite; Joint-Head of Curatorial and Senior Curator of 20th Century Collections at the National Portrait Gallery, Rosie Broadley; and, the panel chair, the Gallery’s Director of Programmes and Partnerships, Rosie Wilson.
The winning portrait A Life Lived is an evolution of a self-portrait Cameron painted 40 years ago. This large-scale work of the artist reclining in a comfortable armchair shows an older woman who has lived, observed and felt deeply. Her posture conveys quiet fatigue, with shoulders slightly slumped and head tilted in reflection. The lines on her face and the subtle shadows tell a story of time passing and of a life fully experienced. Rather than capturing a single moment in time, the portrait holds a lifetime within it.
Tim Benson’s Cliff, Outreach Worker was painted as part of a series of paintings depicting people with facial differences. Cliff’s jaw was broken when he was a child and was never re-set, resulting in his facial difference. Painting Cliff gave the artist the opportunity to challenge historical notions of beauty in portraiture whilst also advocating for the destigmatisation of facial difference.
Martyn Harris’s portrait Memories, 2024 came about when he saw Gillian from his studio when she visited the Art Yard Gallery. Striking up a friendship, and moved by her vulnerability and introspective expression, he asked if she would sit for a portrait that would reflect on the passage of time and the fragility of ageing.
The Young Artist prize went to Michelle Liu for Kofi, a portrait completed at Big Turtle Studio over three Saturday drop-in sessions. The subject was an occasional life model at the studio and sparked Liu’s imagination with his expressive brow bone and ‘aloof slouch’. Working in a communal setting alongside other artist Liu was unable to direct most aspects of the setting, but found that the constraints presented opportunities for sharing and experimentation.
Talking about the news, Victoria Siddall Director, National Portrait Gallery said: “Congratulations to the prize-winners and all the exhibiting artists who feature in the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025. The final artworks within this year’s selection largely explore relationships, both social and familial, and we are very happy to be able to share these stories on our walls and with the public. We are grateful for the support of our sponsors, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, which allows for free access to this exhibition.”
To find out more about the exhibition visit: https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions/2025/hsfk-portrait-award/