The National Portrait Gallery, London, has unveiled its most recent commissioned portrait, a painting of Dame Maggie Smith by the artist James Lloyd. It was commissioned by the Gallery with the support of J. P. Morgan through the Fund for New Commissions.
Dame Maggie Smith (b. 1934) made her stage debut as Viola in Twelfth Night in 1952. While at the Oxford Playhouse School she received early acclaim for her role in Nowhere to Go (1958) and subsequently in As You Like It and Richard II at the Old Vic. Roles in The Recruiting Officer (1963) and The Master Builder (1964) were followed by a performance as Desdemona in Othello opposite Sir Laurence Olivier. Smith was subsequently nominated for an Oscar for her film reprisal of that role and then won two for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1968) and California Suite (1978). Other notable screen performances include A Private Function (1984), A Room with a View (1986) and Tea With Mussolini (1999). More recently, appearances in the Harry Potter series of films and in the award-winning television series Downton Abbey have won Smith new audiences internationally.
James Lloyd (b. 1971) held the Paul Smith Scholarship at the Slade School of Art and in 1997 won first prize in the BP Portrait Award as well as the Ondaatje Prize for portraiture in 2008. Lloyd has exhibited internationally, most recently at the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, and his work is held within collections including those of the House of Commons and Kunsthalle, Mannheim. His portrait of Dame Maggie is the third to enter the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection. His previous portraits were of Sir Paul Smith (the commission awarded to him as part of his first prize in the BP Portrait Award 1997) and David Alec Gwyn Simon, Baron Simon of Highbury (both 1998).
Dame Maggie Smith by James Lloyd is in Room 35 in the Ground floor Lerner Contemporary Galleries at the National Portrait Gallery, London, from Tuesday 9 April, Admission free. www.npg.org.uk