Portrait Painting Today: Tradition, Truth, and Relevance

Complementing The Art of Arnold Friberg exhibition, the panel discussion Portrait Painting Today: Tradition, Truth, and Relevance will take place on Saturday 14 February at 2.30pm, hosted by renowned curator Dr Alison Smith, with award-winning artists Miriam Escofet, Antony Williams, and Frances Bell.

Dr Alison Smith is Director of Collections and Research at the Wallace Collection and former Chief Curator of the National Portrait Gallery. She previously served as Curator of Nineteenth-Century British Art at Tate Britain.

Miriam Escofet is a Barcelona-born British portrait painter whose work is classically inspired and executed with exceptional technical precision. She is the winner of the 2018 BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery and has painted notable sitters for major institutions, including Queen Elizabeth II for the Foreign Office. Escofet is a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (RP) and The Contemporary British Portrait Painters (CBPP).

Frances Bell is a British portrait painter trained at the Charles H. Cecil Studios in Florence. She has won more than 25 major awards, including the Draper Grand Prize from the Portrait Society of America - the most prestigious portraiture award in the United States - and the William Lock Portrait Award. Bell exhibits widely in the UK and internationally and is a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI), the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (RP) and The Contemporary British Portrait Painters (CBPP).

Antony Williams is a British portrait painter renowned for his uncompromising realism and masterful use of egg tempera. He painted Queen Elizabeth II in 1996, and his work is held in major public collections including the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Collection, and the House of Commons. In 2024, he was awarded First Prize in the Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery. Williams is Vice President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and a member of the New English Art Club and the Pastel Society.