---
title: "National Portrait Gallery, London"
date: "2021-03-24T10:45:42+00:00"
modified: "2021-04-08T16:16:59+01:00"
url: "https://heritage.humanists.uk/national-portrait-gallery-london/"
post_id: 3230
categories: ["Arts"]
tags: ["Art", "Furthering human understanding", "Humanism", "Literature", "Philosophy", "Politics", "Science"]
---

# National Portrait Gallery, London

The National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery primarily located in London but with various satellite outstations located elsewhere in the UK. It houses portraits of historically important and famous British people, selected on the basis of the significance of the sitter.







Around 1,400 portraits are on display at the Gallery in London throughout the year, a number of whom are part of humanist heritage. Many portraits on this site are provided courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.







  ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/12/Mary-Wollstonecraft.jpg)Mary Wollstonecraft by John Opie, oil on canvas, circa 1797 © National Portrait Gallery, London

  

###  

- [Matthew Arnold](http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?sText=matthew+Arnold&submitSearchTerm%5Fx=0&submitSearchTerm%5Fy=0&search=ss&OConly=true&firstRun=true&LinkID=mp00139)
- [Clement Attlee](http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?sText=clement+attlee&submitSearchTerm_x=0&submitSearchTerm_y=0&search=ss&OConly=true&firstRun=true&LinkID=mp00169)
- [Charles Darwin](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=darwin&LinkID=mp01196)
- [Sir Richard Doll](http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?sText=doll&submitSearchTerm%5Fx=0&submitSearchTerm%5Fy=0&search=ss&OConly=true&firstRun=true&LinkID=mp05251)
- [E.M. Forster](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=forster&LinkID=mp01636)
- [William Godwin](http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?sText=godwin&submitSearchTerm%5Fx=0&submitSearchTerm%5Fy=0&search=ss&OConly=true&firstRun=true&LinkID=mp01808)
- [T.H. Huxley](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=th+huxley&LinkID=mp02345)
- [John Stuart Mill](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=john+stuart+mill&LinkID=mp03080)
- [William Morris](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=william+morris&LinkID=mp03189)
- [Thomas Paine](http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?sText=Thomas+Paine&submitSearchTerm_x=0&submitSearchTerm_y=0&search=ss&OConly=true&firstRun=true&LinkID=mp03422)
- [Bertrand Russell](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=bertrand+russell&LinkID=mp03901)
- [Percy Bysshe Shelley](http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?sText=shelley&submitSearchTerm%5Fx=0&submitSearchTerm%5Fy=0&search=ss&OConly=true&firstRun=true&LinkID=mp04088)
- [Algernon Charles Swinburne](http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?sText=swinb&submitSearchTerm%5Fx=0&submitSearchTerm%5Fy=0&search=ss&OConly=true&firstRun=true&LinkID=mp04389)
- [Mary Wollstonecraft](http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?sText=Mary+Wollstonecraft&submitSearchTerm_x=0&submitSearchTerm_y=0&search=ss&OConly=true&firstRun=true&LinkID=mp01807)

 

 

 

 

 

  ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2021/03/Jawaharlal-Nehru-NPG-CC.jpg)Jawaharlal Nehru by Howard Coster, print © National Portrait Gallery, London

  

###  

Others are included in the full collection:

- [John Baskerville](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=john+baskerville&LinkID=mp00286)
- [Jeremy Bentham](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=bentham&LinkID=mp00378)
- [Charles Bradlaugh](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=charles+bradlaugh&LinkID=mp00531)
- [Joseph Conrad](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=joseph+conrad&LinkID=mp01005)
- [George Eliot](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=George+eliot&LinkID=mp01124)
- [Thomas Hardy](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=hardy&LinkID=mp02044)
- [George Holyoake](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=holyoake&LinkID=mp02247)
- [David Hume](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=hume&LinkID=mp02322)
- [Julian Huxley](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=th+huxley&LinkID=mp71713)
- [Jawaharlal Nehru](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=nehru&LinkID=mp05615)
- [Robert Owen](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=robert+owen&LinkID=mp03406)
- [J.M. Robertson](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=J+M+Robertson&LinkID=mp53714)
- [Herbert Spencer](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=herbert+spencer&LinkID=mp04224)

 

 

 

 

 

Main image: [The National Portrait Gallery](https://www.flickr.com/photos/romanboed/32602298677), London by [R Boed](https://www.flickr.com/photos/romanboed/) via Flickr. Licensed [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)