题型:阅读理解 题类:常考题 难易度:普通
北师大版(2019)高中英语必修一 Unit 2单元综合
It has taken an extremely long time-161 years-but the National Portrait Gallery finally has the Duke(公爵)of Wellington in its collection after a fundraising campaign reached its £1. 3m target.
The gallery announced on Thursday that it had acquired Sir Thomas Lawrence's unfinished final painting of a man regarded as Britain's greatest soldier after a successful appeal.
Nicholas Cullinan, the gallery's director, said the NPG had been looking for a suitable painting of the Duke of Wellington since the gallery was founded in 1856.
He called it "a remarkable painting", while Lucy Peltz, the gallery's senior manager of 18thcentury paintings, said the work was "an inspiring and powerful image of one of the most influential men of the 18th and 19th centuries".
The NPG announced last November that it needed to raise £300,000, the final piece of a funding jigsaw(拼图). The Art Fund had already contributed £350,000 and the appeal reached its target thanks to £200,000 from the G&K Boyes charitable trust and £180,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund. A further £570,000 came from a public appeal and the gallery's own funds.
It was painted in 1829 when Wellington was prime minister, however, Lawrence died in 1830 leaving the portrait unfinished. The gallery believes it is a more attractive work because of that, with the viewer focusing more on the man himself rather than any clothes of power.
Dan Snow, the historian and broadcaster, said Wellington was a "Titanic figure" in British history, the only field greatest prime minister, a man of genius on and off the battlefield. He added:" This arresting portrait must sit in the national collection and now, following an outpouring of donation, it will do. The artist has caught the Duke's legendary features. Among his many contributions to British life he formed the culture of unbending spirit in the face of difficulty."
The painting was lent to the NPG in 2015 for an exhibition marking the Battle of Waterloo.
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