Martin Gayford

A game for two

The best drawings in this marvellous little exhibition condense a wordless relationship between painter and sitter

issue 22 July 2017

Some art can be made in solitude, straight out of the artist’s head. But portraiture is a game for two. That’s the lesson of The Encounter: Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt, a marvellous little exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. It is essentially a medley of Old Master works on papers from various British collections — which might sound a little on the quiet side.

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