John Donne Portrait : National Portrait Gallery Needs £116,000

Monday, 22 May 2006 11:42

London - The National Portrait Gallery is delighted to announce that the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) has agreed to contribute £750,000 towards the acquisition of the portrait of John Donne.  This very generous grant will help to secure the portrait for the nation.  Painted in about 1595, the John Donne work has been the subject of a major National Portrait Gallery appeal since January 2006.  The Gallery is also particularly indebted to The Art Fund for leading the campaign for helping to initiate the campaign with their support of £200,000.

The painting is a portrait of unmistakable national importance.  It is one of the earliest English author portraits and is the most famous of all Elizabethan love portraits.  The picture has an impeccable provenance and was bequeathed to an ancestor of the current owner in John Donne’s will.

The figure of £116,057 is outstanding and needs to be raised by June this year.  The Gallery urges everyone with an interest in John Donne to help the National Portrait Gallery in the final stages of its campaign, buy this remarkable portrait for all to enjoy.  If the Gallery is successful in raising all the funds by June this year the painting will undergo a conservation assessment and be put on permanent public display.

Stephen Johnson, Head of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, says: “John Donne is one of this nation’s greatest poets and his 16th century poems continue to dazzle us in the 21st century.  Although his words are famous, few people know what he looked like in real life."

Donations to the National Portrait Gallery John Donne Appeal can be made online at www.npg.org.uk/johndonne.