Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026
Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026 is now open for entries!
Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award 2026, painting competition has been recently organised by National Portrait Gallery in London inviting all artists from around the world to participate.
Short description
The Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award returns for 2026.
This prestigious painting competition, organized by the National Portrait Gallery in London, celebrates the very best in contemporary portraiture and is one of the most important platforms for portrait painters today. The artworks explore the variety of approaches to portraiture, from the classic to the contemporary, and encourage viewers to reflect on the creativity of the artists’ processes.
Since its inception, the long-standing competition has attracted over 40,000 entries from more than 100 countries and has been seen by over 6 million people. Artists demonstrate an impressive range and complexity of skill, with artworks exploring both classical and innovative techniques that show the enduring relevance of portraiture today.
The competition is limited to one entry per artist. The work must have been completed after 1 January 2024.
All entrants will be notified if their work has been selected for the second round of judging by 21 January 2026. If the artist is selected they will be required to send their work to the judging venue between the 29 January and 4 February, 2026.
Only if the artist’s work has been selected for the second round of judging will they need to organise the delivery of their artwork to the judging venue from 29 January to 4 February 2026.
All selected artists aged between 18 and 30 will automatically be considered for both the Young Artist Award and the Portrait Award, but an individual cannot win both. If there are no exhibitors aged 30 or under then no Young Artist Award will be given and the funds so available shall be used to offer a Fourth Prize.
The exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery will be open to the public from 25 June to 7 October 2026.
Those shortlisted for prizes must attend the Awards Ceremony on the evening of Tuesday 23 June 2026.
Submission requirements:
PAINTINGS
➜ The work entered must be predominantly painted in oil, tempera or acrylic and must be on a stretcher or board, preferably framed and unglazed (i.e.: no glass or perspex). No watercolours, works on paper or pastels will be considered.
➜ The work entered should be a painting based on a sitting or study from life and the human figure must predominate.
➜ Self-portraits and group portraits are permitted.
➜ Minimum size: 25cm x 20cm unframed. Any works smaller than this will not be considered.
➜ Maximum size: 244cm x 244cm framed. Please note that we cannot accept any works larger than this.
➜ Multi part works (up to three parts) will be accepted and regarded as one work.
➜ Please bear in mind the above size restrictions and include full instructions for installation of the work.
DIGITAL IMAGE OF WORK
➜ Entrants will be required to register for a secure artist account on the Gallery’s competition platform www.competitions.npg.org.uk. Through this account, entrants will be able to submit their digital image for the first round of judging.
➜ It is compulsory that the artist uploads one image of the entire work (including all the parts of a diptych or triptych).
➜ Please note that the first round of judging is completed digitally. It is therefore important that the photograph uploaded by the artist is of a high quality.
➜ Each image must be saved as a JPG/JPEG and be 3 MB or smaller.
Who may enter?
The competition is open to all artists from around the world. Artists must be aged 18 years or over as of 1 January 2025. To be eligible for the Young Artist Award, artists must be 30 years of age or under as of 1 January 2025.
Prize:
➜ First Prize: £35,000
➜ Second Prize: £12,000
➜ Third Prize: £10,000
➜ Young Artist Award: £9,000
All artists chosen to exhibit in 2026 and 2027’s Portrait Award exhibitions will be considered for the bi-annual Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Artist Commission, which has a value of £14,000. This will be announced in 2027.
Entry fees:
Entry into the competition costs £40. Artists in receipt of Universal Credit or Pension Credit can enter this year’s competition for free, and a 50% discount is in place for artists who receive Disability Benefits, who are students or are between the ages of 18 and 25.
