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Lensmark

Your AI tour guide for the National Portrait Gallery

Photograph a work in the National Portrait Gallery and Lensmark tells you who made it, when, and why it matters, with every fact linked to its source.

Your tour guide, today

Week Pass $5.99 USD Seven days, 50 identifications. One payment, and it does not renew. A Lensmark account is required to complete checkout. Lensmark's Week Pass is separate from National Portrait Gallery admission and museum services. Download on the App Store

National Portrait Gallery

London, United Kingdom

Lensmark is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by National Portrait Gallery.

Privacy

Take a photo and read the work's sourced story

Illustrative photo demo

Illustrative collection

  1. Take a permitted photo Use a photo allowed by the museum's current rules.
  2. Read the sourced history When Lensmark can verify the work, it explains what the sources support and links to them. When it cannot, it says so plainly.
  3. Ask a follow-up Continue with a question about the work's maker, age or significance.
  4. Your National Portrait Gallery walk saves itself. Just take pictures. Each work is kept with its sourced history, grouped by day.

Image in the demo: The Brontë Sisters, Patrick Branwell Brontë, circa 1834, National Portrait Gallery. This digitally restored version by Dcoetzee is marked public domain on Wikimedia Commons; cropped and resized for the demo. Public-domain status.

What the National Portrait Gallery collection covers

The National Portrait Gallery in London collects portraits of people significant to British history and culture. Its holdings include paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings and photographs. Collection

The Gallery acquired its first portrait, William Shakespeare, when it was founded in 1856. Portraits of the Brontë sisters and Mary Seacole connect the collection with literary and social history.

Its collection strengths include British portrait painting, Portrait photography and negatives, and Portrait prints and drawings.

  • William Shakespeare

    associated with John Taylor

    Date
    circa 1610

    Known as the Chandos portrait, this painting is associated with John Taylor. It was the Gallery’s first portrait, given by the Earl of Ellesmere in 1856.

    Read the museum record

  • The Brontë Sisters

    Patrick Branwell Brontë

    Date
    circa 1834

    Branwell painted his sisters Anne, Emily and Charlotte together. The canvas was rediscovered folded on top of a wardrobe in 1914, the year the Gallery purchased it.

    Read the museum record

  • Mary Seacole

    Albert Charles Challen

    Date
    1869

    Challen painted Seacole wearing medals in this oil portrait on panel. Rediscovered behind a framed print in 2002, it entered the Gallery’s collection in 2008.

    Read the museum record

These are collection records, not confirmation that the works are on display today.

Check the photography rules first

The National Portrait Gallery permits personal, noncommercial photography and filming with small cameras and devices only, without flash, torches, tripods or selfie sticks; respect others’ privacy, obtain permission before filming visitors, and follow copyright, security, conservation and visitor-experience exceptions, with prior permission required for other uses. Read its current visitor conditions and follow gallery signs before taking a photo. National Portrait Gallery photography policy

Lensmark needs a connection to answer, so check your signal or any visitor Wi-Fi before you photograph a work.

Lensmark can explain National Portrait Gallery works. Let us be your AI tour guide today.

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