UK’s National Portrait Gallery To Display Historic Dadabhai Naoroji Painting

 

London : A historic portrait of Dadabhai Naoroji, the nationalist leader who became the first-ever Indian MP in the British Parliament, is set to be unveiled as the newest addition to the National Portrait Gallery in London. The portrait by artist Sorab M Pithawalla had taken pride of place for over 70 years at the India Club on the Strand before the restaurant lost a campaign to extend its lease three years ago.

Manager Yadgar Marker decided to approach the iconic London gallery housing the world’s greatest collection of portraits to find a new home for the treasured work, which will be open to the public from next Wednesday.

“The National Portrait Gallery were extremely happy to have been approached, as until now they have had a very small sketch of Dadabhai," shared Marker.

 

“An extensive restoration had been carried out through the Painting Pairs Programme at Courtauld Institute of Art, in which extensive enquiries had also been made of the life of the sitter.

“We are more than delighted that the portrait has found a new home where Dadabhai Naoroji's achievements will be noticed and much admired," he said.

The Marker family, of Parsi heritage like Dadabhai, have loaned the portrait to the National Portrait Gallery for an initial three-year period, which is expected to be renewed. It will go on display in Room 23, the Empire and Resistance Gallery, which houses portraits that tell a story about the British Empire and resistance to it.

“We are delighted to be showing this portrait of Dadabhai Naoroji, who was such a remarkable figure in British political life in the Victorian and Edwardian eras," said Sarah Moulden, the National Portrait Gallery’s Senior Curator of 19th-Century Collections. “As one of the first Asian MPs in Britain and a leading critic of colonial rule in India, he helped shape debates about empire and self-government," she said.