LONDON.- The National Portrait Gallery has unveiled a new portrait of its former Director, Nicholas Cullinan, by celebrated American artist Elizabeth Peyton. The work was commissioned to mark Dr Nicholas Cullinan’s tenure as Director of the National Portrait Gallery (2015-2024), and has been generously given by the artist to the Gallery. It is now on permanent display in Room 30.

The portrait continues the National Portrait Gallery's longstanding tradition of representing its former directors. Known for her intimate, luminous depictions of her sitters, Peyton brings her distinctive style to this historic lineage. The portrait was done from life with sittings taking place between Paris where the artist is based, and London where the sitter lives.

Peyton and Cullinan grew close whilst working on the artist’s retrospective Elizabeth Peyton: Aire and Angels held at the NPG in 2019-2020. The exhibition, curated by Lucy Wood, was created in close collaboration with the artist and brought to the fore her engagement with historic and contemporary portraiture. Known for her portraits of artists, friends, lovers, actors, activists, athletes, dancers, musicians, queens, princes, politicians and poets, Peyton is one of the most respected portrait painters working today.

Nicholas Cullinan served as Director of the National Portrait Gallery from 2015 to 2024, overseeing the biggest transformation of the NPG since its building opened in 1896, which reopened in 2023 to much acclaim. During his tenure at the Gallery, he also initiated an innovative international collaboration with Getty to co-acquire Portrait of Mai (c. 1776) by Sir Joshua Reynolds - the largest acquisition in the Gallery’s history and that the UK has ever made (along with the Titian acquired by the National Gallery and National Galleries of Scotland in 2009). Cullinan is now Director of the British Museum.





“During a wonderful decade at the National Portrait Gallery, working with Elizabeth Peyton on her extraordinary 2019 exhibition there was a particular highlight. So, I’m honoured not only to sit for Elizabeth, as one of the great artists working today and a dear friend, but that her very generous donation marks the first painting of hers to enter the permanent collection of the NPG.” -- Nicholas Cullinan, Former Director of the National Portrait Gallery

“I am truly honoured to have been asked by Nicholas to make this portrait of him and that it will be in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. For me the show I had at the NPG, Aire and Angels was a life highlight as well as the friendship that has grown after it. I hope Nicholas’s vitality, warmth and huge intelligence can be felt in this portrait for a long time to come.” -- Elizabeth Peyton, Artist

"Nicholas Cullinan gave a decade of transformative vision to the NPG, and it is a joy to welcome Elizabeth Peyton's portrait of him into our permanent Collection. This work is a beautiful testament to both her talent and Nicholas's remarkable contribution to the NPG." -- Flavia Frigeri, Chief Curator of the National Portrait Gallery