First World War Royal Portrait Goes On Show For The First Time

The National Portrait Gallery is displaying for the first time ever, a portrait of King Edward VIII during the First World War on the Western Front.

The painting of the then Prince of Wales was painted before he ascended the throne, after which he would later famously abdicate.

The oil sketch will be shown in the new gallery spaces, devoted to its early 20th Century collection.

The artist behind the creation was Frank O Salisbury, who armed with his art supplies went to the Western Front to capture the scenes.

The artist recalled the painting process in 1917, sayng:

“He sat very well…we were quite near the fighting line and the guns were going off incessantly.”

The portrait will be reunited with three other life-size group portraits of naval and general officers in the First World War.

The paintings haven’t been shown together in decades.

The National Portrait Gallery is now home to four new rooms, holding a total of 121 potraits.

The new gallery will be split into segments each dedicated to one period of the war.

The rooms include The Early 20th Century, The Great War, The Interwar Years, The Second World War and Post-War Recovery.

Paul Moorhouse, curator of the new galleries, said the rooms would encompass an era of "breath-taking changes".

Some recognisable names and faces will be on display, the likes of Sir Winston Churchill, King George V, Roald Dahl, Virgina Woolf, suffragette dame Christabel Pankhurst and polar explorer Ernest Shackleton.

Paul Moorhouse added:

"An individual born in 1900 occupied a world that saw the advent of powered flight and, within a lifetime, the conquest of the moon."

"Society broke free from Victorian constraints and the independent status of women was hugely important. The newly hung galleries tell these amazing stories.

"They bring together portraits of the men and women who were responsible for the developments that transformed Britain by ushering in the modern world."

The galleries will open at the National Portrait Gallery in London on Sunday.

Cover photo: National Portrait Gallery / PA