Scottish National Portrait Gallery

National Galleries Scotland: Portrait
Queen Street façade
Scottish National Portrait Gallery is located in Edinburgh city centre
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
Location within Edinburgh city centre
Former name
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
Established1889; 135 years ago (1889)
Location1 Queen Street
Edinburgh EH2 1JD
Scotland
Coordinates55°57′19.5″N 3°11′36.9″W / 55.955417°N 3.193583°W / 55.955417; -3.193583
Visitors372,743 (2019)[1]
Public transit accessEdinburgh Trams York Place
Websitenationalgalleries.org

National Galleries Scotland: Portrait is an art museum on Queen Street, Edinburgh. Portrait holds the national collections of portraits, all of which are of, but not necessarily by, Scots. It also holds the Scottish National Photography Collection.

Since 1889 it has been housed in its red sandstone Gothic revival building, designed by Robert Rowand Anderson and built between 1885 and 1890 to accommodate the gallery and the museum collection of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. The building was donated by John Ritchie Findlay, owner of The Scotsman newspaper. In 1985 the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland was amalgamated with the Royal Scottish Museum, and later moved to Chambers Street as part of the National Museum of Scotland. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery expanded to take over the whole building, and reopened on 1 December 2011 as “Portrait” after being closed since April 2009 for the first comprehensive refurbishment in its history, carried out by Page\Park Architects.[2][3]

Portrait is part of National Galleries Scotland, a public body that also owns the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh.

  1. ^ "ALVA – Association of Leading Visitor Attractions". alva.org.uk. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  2. ^ Scotland, National Galleries of. "About Us − National Galleries of Scotland". NationalGalleries.org. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  3. ^ "National Museums Scotland Archive". Archives Hub. Retrieved 25 June 2018.