Britain's long-running portrait painting prize, founded in 1980 and free of its old oil-company sponsor since 2024, showed its 2026 shortlist at the National Portrait Gallery to 7 October.
Britain’s long-running portrait painting prize showed its 2026 shortlist at the National Portrait Gallery on Trafalgar Square from Thursday 25 June to Wednesday 7 October 2026.
The prize began in 1980 as the John Player Portrait Award, sponsored by a tobacco company. BP took it over in 1989 and backed it for three decades.
The oil company’s name on the prize drew regular protest from Art Not Oil, a campaign group. In 2016 the Museums Association opened a formal inquiry into whether BP’s sponsorship shaped the judging. The competition resumed in 2024 under the law firm Herbert Smith Freehills.
Entry was once restricted to painters under 40 living in Britain. Since 2007 it has been open to any artist over 18, worldwide, with a separate Young Artist Award for painters starting out.
This year’s first prize went to Marc Dalessio for Jean-Denis, with Chloe Cox second for What’s Mine is Yours. Michael Slusakowicz was third for Charlie and Magda, and Joel Nichols took the Young Artist Award for In Our Borderlands.
All four hung beside the rest of the shortlist, in styles from the classical to the contemporary.