Close-up: Portraits of contemporary actresses star in new show

Portraits of contemporary actresses including Vanessa Redgrave and Sienna Miller are going on display at the National Portrait Gallery next week.

The Actress Now exhibition is being staged to compliment the gallery’s forthcoming major exhibition, The First Actresses: Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons.

Drawn from the Gallery’s Collection, The Actress Now includes women with long and varied acting careers, such as Dame Maggie Smith, Fiona Shaw and Dame Harriet Walter, as well as younger performers such as Natalie Dormer and Lily Cole.

The display of 39 works in a range of media includes an oil painting of Dame Helen Mirren by Ishbel Myerscough, a pencil drawing of Parminder Nagra by Stuart Pearson Wright, a ceramic sculpture of Glenda Jackson by Glenys Barton and photographic portraits by Jason Bell, Sal Idriss, Fergus Greer and Harry Borden.

New acquisitions are portraits of Zoe Tapper, Rosamund Pike and Gemma Arterton by Sarah Dunn; Vanessa Redgrave by Jillian Edelstein; Anna Popplewell by Francesco Guidicini; Sienna Miller by Elisabeth Hoff and Natalie Dormer by Chris Floyd.

The Actress Now is at the National Portrait Gallery from the 20 October until 8 January 2012, www.npg.org.uk