Bryan Organ

Published to mark the artist's 90th birthday, this is the first and only book to provide an overview of Bryan Organ, one of the world's great portrait painters. This book tells the story of Bryan Organ, whose works have been commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery more than any other 20th-century painter. It is itself a portrait, one that draws on his beginnings on the school cricket pitch and at art college as well as his time sketching others in recording studios, on the polo field and at the Elysée Palace. It tells the stories of his most important paintings, his friendship with Graham Sutherland, and his endless experimentation with movement, space and form. For the first time, it offers a contextual overview of his paintings, drawings, prints and sketches from the 1950s to today. Whether painting Prince Charles, Sir Harold Macmillan, Elton John, President Mitterrand or pigeon fanciers Mr and Mrs Sharples, Organ’s strategy is to find a point of contact with his sitters and get to know them. As this beautiful book illustrates, his acute powers of observation, his facility as a draughtsman and meticulous painting technique enable him to create a psychological likeness that feels like a real human encounter. Despite his success, Organ has always shunned the limelight. When his controversial 1970 portrait of Princess Margaret hit the front pages, he found it difficult to cope with the uproar and retreated to France. Some ten years later, his portrait of Princess Diana was slashed by an anti-monarchist, and Organ decided that enough was enough. Since then, he has continued to work quietly, but refuses to be involved in any exhibitions and avoids all press coverage. Organ provided unprecedented access to his entire archive for this book, the only overview of his illustrious career.

Tristram Hunt has been Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum since 2017. Charlotte Mullins is an art critic, writer and broadcaster. She has contributed to the Telegraph, Financial Times, Independent and specialist art titles for many years, and is the author of several books, including Picturing People, also published by Thames & Hudson. Jon Snow is an English journalist and television presenter. He is best known as the longest-running presenter of Channel 4 News, which he presented from 1989 to 2021. Chris Stephens has been Director of the Holburne Museum in Bath since 2017. Prior to that he worked at Tate for over twenty years, as Head of Displays, Tate Britain, and as Head of Modern British Art. Sir Roy Strong is an English art historian, museum curator, writer, broadcaster and landscape designer. He has served as director of both the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.