Portraiture, with Simon Schama and Eleanor Nairne

Human beings have been making visual depictions of human life for tens of thousands of years. Fascination with our own likeness is one of the great constants of human history – and the portrait has long been the focus of that fascination. What can portraits tell us about the world? And what can they tell us about ourselves? In today’s episode – originally recorded live in Sotheby’s in the week that the National Portrait Gallery reopened in London – Helena Newman, Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, sat down with Barbican Art Gallery curator Eleanor Nairne, and the award-winning art historian Simon Schama, for a conversation about the enduring power of the portrait. To see any of the portraits discussed in this episode, or to watch an extended version of this talk, visit And, to step further into the world of Sotheby’s, you can visit any of our galleries around the world; they’re open to the public. For more information, visit sothebys.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You can listen to Portraiture, with Simon Schama and Eleanor Nairne online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Portraiture, with Simon Schama and Eleanor Nairne is an episode from Intelligence Squared Business.

This episode is 37:12 long.

This episode was published on Jan 14, 2024.

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