Something to look forward to next year from our friends and partners at the Walker Art Gallery is The Tudors: Passion, Power and Politics exhibition, opening in Liverpool on 21 May 2022 and running until the end of August. This major exhibition will feature almost 70 of the most famous portraits from the National Portrait Gallery’s Tudor collection, paintings from the Walker Art Gallery’s own collection and a selection of additional loans, making it a rare opportunity to discover and explore the Tudors from a range of perspectives.
The Tudor dynasty reigned over England for over 100 years, and produced two of history’s most iconic monarchs in Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth. Other celebrated figures from the period featured in the exhibition include Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Mary Queen of Scots and William Shakespeare. One of the highlights will be a rare portrait of Henry VIII’s third queen, Jane Seymour, and aspects of black history and LGBTQ+ history from the period will also be explored.
The exhibition will feature around 100 objects in total, including the Westminster Tournament Roll celebrating the birth of Henry VIII’s son with Catherine of Aragon in 1511, which has not been displayed in public for almost 20 years. Thought to be the only surviving item from Elizabeth I’s wardrobe, the Bacton Altar Cloth has been loaned to the Walker Gallery for the event. Finally, the Armada Maps, recently saved for the nation and illustrating the famous Spanish naval attack on England in 1588, will also be on display.
This will be the first time that so many of the most renowned paintings from the National Portrait Gallery’s Tudor collection and objects of unique historical interest from the period have been exhibited outside of London, making The Tudors: Passion, Power and Politics a major event in the city’s cultural calendar, as well as a considerable accomplishment on the part of the team at the Walker Art Gallery.
