Bryan Organ

What unites the pop star Elton John, Britain’s King Charles III, the former French president François Mitterrand (1916–96), and Mr. & Mrs. Sharples, pigeon fanciers in Lancashire? They all sat for distinguished British painter Bryan Organ. Born in 1935, Organ studied art at Loughborough College of Art and Royal Academy Schools before setting out to pursue painting as a full-time career. He received his first commission in 1967, and since then monarchs, politicians, artists, designers, and business executives from around the world have asked him to paint them. His portrait of Princess Diana attracted more than 100,000 visitors within the first 72 hours on public display in 1981. No other contemporary artist is represented with more works in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Yet remarkably, no full-scale monograph on Bryan Organ has been published to date. Bryan Organ: Picturing People fills this gap, featuring around 80 of his portraits in full-page plates, alongside preliminary studies and numerous works in other genres, such as animal paintings, still lifes, and designs for album covers. Essays on his life and art by critic Charlotte Mullins, the directors of Holburne Museum in Bath, Chris Stephens, and London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, Tristram Hunt, and journalist and news anchorman Jon Snow round off this entertaining and illuminating volume.