LONDON.- The National Portrait Gallery, London announced today (Wednesday 27 March 2013) a £20,000 appeal to restore a huge portrait that has not been on display at the Gallery since the 1960s. Funds will be raised through the Gallery’s participation in DONATE, from the National Funding Scheme. The new scheme is a single national, mobile giving platform, freely available to all charitable cultural institutions. This digital solution allows visitors to donate using smartphones. The National Portrait Gallery will use the funds raised through this scheme to conserve Sir Arthur Stockdale Cope’s portrait of Naval Officers of World War I (1921). The large-scale portrait set in the Admiralty Boardroom, Whitehall, measures over 5 metres in length and comprises twenty-two portraits of the navy’s most senior figures. With the necessary funding the portrait will be restored and returned to public display in time to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War in 2014.

Shortly after the First World War, the leading financier and public servant Sir Abraham Bailey decided to commission three group portraits to commemorate the role of the army, the navy and the politicians in bringing the war to a close. Sir James Guthrie’s Statesmen of World War I and John Singer Sargent’s General Officers of World War I are on continuous display in Room 30 where they form the centrepiece of the Gallery’s Great War holdings. In contrast, the Naval Officers of World War I has not been seen for several decades because of its condition which currently makes it unfit for display. The painting requires canvas conservation and cleaning. The original gilded frame also requires restoration. Without this essential treatment one of the Gallery’s grandest group portraits remains hidden from view.

Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London, says: ‘With the immediacy of the mobile world it is crucial that anyone can make a digital donation in order to demonstrate what they feel about an important cause or following a visit to a great exhibition, a brilliant performance or an outstanding heritage site. This needs to be available on a consistent basis.’

Paul Moorhouse, 20th Century Curator, National Portrait Gallery, London, says: ‘The Naval Officers of World War I was commissioned after the Great War, as a gift to the nation marking the role of Britain’s navy during the conflict. Sadly, it has not been seen in decades. With the necessary funds for conservation, the return of this great work in 2014 would be very appropriate and hugely significant.’