How I Would Love To See This Show
Jenny Uglow writes: ‘The National Portrait Gallery, in London, is a curious museum, as we seem to go there more often to see people than to admire paintings: it works as a visual shorthand for British history, full of gaggles of schoolchildren doing the Tudors. But one of its current shows, “Russia and the Arts: The Age of Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky,†plunges us into a different history. Over the past few years the NPG has built a reputation for curating unexpected small exhibitions alongside its larger blockbusters: this remarkable show of Russian portraits is one of those. And it is one that should not be missed.’ Pictured is Nikolai Ge’s 1884 portrait of Tolstoy.
