英国国家肖像画廊始建于1856年，经过100多年的积累，拥有10000件作品。在这些作品中，大约4000幅是油画、雕塑等，其中的60%一直在博物馆或以巡回展出的方式展览。画廊的展厅分为五个部分，除了一个维多利亚肖像展厅外，其余都按历史年代分类，从15世纪至今。博物馆还拥有和肖像相关的22万幅摄影作品。其中至少有13万幅是有原始底片的。这些作品从1840年至今，主要分成两大部分：比较重要的永久性收藏以“P”带头，一般级别的收藏以“X”带头。

    The National Portrait Gallery was formally established on 2 December 1856, and amongst its founder Trustees were Stanhope as Chairman, Macaulay, Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Ellesmere, a former Trustee of the National Gallery, who offered to the nation the so-called Chandos portrait of Shakespeare, which became the first picture to enter the Gallery's collection. On Ellesmere's death in 1857 Carlyle became a Trustee.

地址：St Martin’s Place,London WC2H ONE.
网址：www.npg.org.uk