On this Saturday in 1972, were you in the vicinity of London, you could have visited the National Portrait Gallery for free and searched out images of many of the greatest fantastical writers of all time. As a boy during the period, I never imagined that the palaces of High Art could be for me too. It’s a very long way, as doubtlessly a great many of us felt, from a suburban council estate to the august temples of art in central London. It’s a shame that nobody pointed out that those very temples were for all of us. Today the National Portrait Gallery is one of my favourite places on the planet, and it’s been so ever since I saw an exhibition of David Low’s cartoons there in the mid-80s.
Here’s just five portraits from the NPG of classic fantastical writers. I’ve chosen them straight off the top of my head. As my old art teacher used to insist, I haven’t been afraid to be obvious. Shakespeare is the most obvious choice of all, and yet my relationship to the classics was transformed when I stared at his picture and reminded myself that he often wrote about ghosts and spirits and witches and the like. At that moment, he became, to my younger self, no less a great, great author. But he also became one of us. The intimidation of his celestial reputation fell away.
The Almanac Of The Fantastical will most certainly return to the NPG in the months to come. It’s a great place to go, after all.
William Shakespeare, associated with John Taylor, 1610.
Jonathan Swift, by Charles Jervas, c.1718.
Mary Shelley, by Richard Rothwell, c.1840.
Robert Louis Stevenson, by Sir William Blake Richmond, 1881.
Oscar Wilde, by Alfred Ellis & Walery, 1892.
The Almanac Of The Fantastical will return tomorrow…
The Almanac Of The Fantastical 