Shakespeare and Nelson on display in Moscow

(22 Apr 2016) LEAD IN : The famous Chandos portrait of Shakespeare and many other unique paintings from the British National Portrait Gallery are on show in Moscow. The display at the Tretyakov gallery is a part of a wider collection of works called ’Elizabeth to Victoria: British Portraits from the Collection of the National Portrait Gallery.’ STORY-LINE: On display in Moscow, one of the National Portrait Gallery’s most prized assets - a portrait, believed to depict William Shakespeare. The painting is known as the ’Chandos portrait’, after a previous owner - the Duke of Chandos - and was the first portrait to be acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, when it was founded in 1856. In what’s been described as an “unprecedented cultural exchange“ with Moscow, Shakespeare is on show in Russia, along with portraits of Queen Elizabeth I, Charles Dickens, Lord Nelson and James Cook. In return, the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is rece