Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award 2025

Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award 2025 is now open for entries!

Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award 2025 : Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award 2025, 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 2025. This prestigious painting competition, organized by the National Portrait Gallery in London, celebrates the very best in contemporary portraiture and will include captivating works from around the world, by both self-taught and more established painters. 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 work entered should be a painting based on a sitting or study from life and the human figure must predominate.

The work must be predominantly painted in oil, tempera or acrylic. No watercolours, works on paper or pastels will be considered.

The competition is limited to one entry per artist. The work must have been completed after 1 January 2024.

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.

All entrants will be notified if their work has been selected for the second round of judging by 28 January 2025. If the artist is selected they will be required to send their work to the judging venue between the 17 and 21 February, 2025.

The exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery will be open to the public from 10 July – 12 October 2025. Those shortlisted for prizes must attend the Awards Ceremony on the evening of Tuesday 8 July 2025.

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. 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.

➜ Paintings will be judged anonymously so should not be signed on the front.

Minimum size: 25cm x 20cm unframed. Any works smaller than this will not be considered.

Maximum size: 244cm x 244cm framed. Please note that organiser 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:

➜ 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 3MB or smaller.

Who may enter?

The competition is open to all artists from around the world. Artists must be aged 18 years or over.

Prize:

➜ First Prize: £35,000
➜ Second Prize: £12,000
➜ Third Prize: £10,000
➜ Young Artist Award: £9,000

Selected work will be displayed in the National Portrait Gallery.

Entry fees:

Entry into the competition costs £40.