The National Portrait Gallery’s celebrated painting competition returns for its 43rd year, with a striking self-portrait by artist Moira Cameron named as winner.
Michelle Liu wins the Young Artist Award for her portrait, Kofi.
The exhibition of the 46 final artworks is free to visit from 10 July to 12 October 2025.
A Life Lived, 2024 by Moira Cameron © Moira Cameron;
Moira Cameron has won first prize in the prestigious Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025 for her self-portrait A Life Lived.
Tim Benson was awarded the second prize for Cliff, Outreach Worker, and third prize went to Martyn Harris for Memories. Michelle Liu wins the Young Artist Award for her portrait Kofi.
The winning portraits are now on display as part of the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025. The exhibition features 46 portraits, selected for display by a panel of judges including visual artist, Maggi Hambling CBE; art historian and academic at The Courtauld Institute of Art, Professor Dorothy Price FBA; opera singer, artist and writer, Peter Brathwaite; Joint-Head of Curatorial and Senior Curator of 20th Century Collections at the National Portrait Gallery, Rosie Broadley; and, the panel chair, the Gallery’s Director of Programmes and Partnerships, Rosie Wilson.
First Prize £35,000: Moira Cameron for A Life Lived (Oil on canvas 2200 x 200mm)
Moira Cameron is a British artist who trained at Ravensbourne College of Art and Chelsea College of Art. Her work has been exhibited around the world, including in London, Japan, New York and Switzerland. Born into a family of artists, her artistic calling was never in question. After decades of artistic collaboration, first with her husband, Pop artist David Spiller, then with her son, Xavier, Cameron has returned to her own practice. As part of this newfound independence, she is reimagining paintings she created as a student.
A Life Lived is an evolution of a self-portrait Cameron painted 40 years ago. This large-scale work of the artist reclining in a comfortable armchair shows an older woman who has lived, observed and felt deeply. Her posture conveys quiet fatigue, with shoulders slightly slumped and head tilted in reflection. The lines on her face and the subtle shadows tell a story of time passing and of a life fully experienced. Rather than capturing a single moment in time, the portrait holds a lifetime within it.
Cameron began the new portrait by sketching the image with pastels and spray paints before applying thick layers of oil paint – brushed, palette-knifed, or smeared by hand – followed by more fluid oils. Some areas are scraped, washed away, and repainted, while others are intentionally left bare.
This portrait grabbed the judges’ attention with its bold, non-naturalistic treatment of the figure combined with vivid colour and use of pattern. The technique has an energy, vitality and humour that contrasts with the introspective pose and expression of the subject, creating a compelling tension.
Second Prize £12,000: Tim Benson for Cliff, Outreach Worker (Oil on canvas, 1520 x 1220mm)
Cliff, Outreach Worker, 2024 by Tim Benson © Tim Benson
Tim Benson is a British oil painter who trained at Middlesex University, Glasgow School of Art, and Byam Shaw School of Art. He began as a landscape painter before switching his focus to figurative work. Across his award-winning career, Benson has won international commissions and partaken in a string of group and solo exhibitions. He is also the President of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in London. Benson’s work has previously been selected for the Portrait Award in 2012, 2020 and 2024.
For Benson, portrait painting is about storytelling and chronicling experiences. This large scale portrait of London outreach worker Clifford Dobbs was painted as part of a series of paintings depicting people with facial differences. Cliff’s jaw was broken when he was a child and was never re-set, resulting in his facial difference. Painting Cliff gave the artist the opportunity to challenge historical notions of beauty in portraiture whilst also advocating for the destigmatisation of facial difference.
Due to the sitter’s busy schedule, the portrait was made from sketches and photographs taken in Cliff’s office, as opposed to Benson’s usual process of a single four-hour sitting. Benson works quickly and uses a limited palette, painting straight to canvas with a wide, flat brush that prevents excessive detailing and allows him to ‘sculpt’ the facets of the sitter’s head in thick oils with as few brush strokes as necessary.
The judges were impressed by Benson’s expressive and sculptural use of paint to build a likeness. They felt that the intense focus on his sitter’s face and the celebration of difference, combined with the over life-size scale, created a powerful encounter.
Third Prize £10,000: Martyn Harris for Memories (Oil on board 400mm x 400mm)
Memories, 2024 by Martyn Harris © Martyn Harris
Martyn Harris is a British portrait and landscape artist who trained as a mentee under W. R. Jennings. He became a full-time artist eight years ago, following a career that included jobs as a mechanical engineer and draughtsman. The meticulous and painstaking nature of his previous occupations can be detected in measured, closely observed portraits. Harris’s works have been selected several times for the Royal Society of Portrait Painters’ annual exhibition.
Harris would often see Gillian from his studio when she visited the Art Yard Gallery. Striking up a friendship, and moved by her vulnerability and introspective expression, he asked if she would sit for a portrait that would reflect on the passage of time and the fragility of ageing. Captured over three sittings, the portrait depicts Gillian in a moment of reflection. Her expression is pensive, with hands clasped in quiet contemplation and eyes downcast, thoughtful and somewhat weary, suggesting a life of many experiences.
Harris makes use of light, shadow and contrast to strengthen the emotional qualities of the piece. The light muted background heightens the sense of isolation, placing Gillian in a world of her own; while the contrast between her pale skin and dark clothes highlights the delicate lines and colours of her face and hands. The work explores themes of loneliness, reflection and human vulnerability, and invites viewers to consider Gillian’s life and story.
The judges were moved by the sensitivity that the artist brought to painting their subject, who appears lost in a moment of contemplation. They also admired the exquisite painting of textures, including the sitter’s woollen sweater and wisps of hair.
Young Artist Award £9,000: Michelle Liu for Kofi (Oil on canvas, 500 x 400mm)
Kofi, 2024 by Michelle Liu © Michelle Liu
Michelle Liu is an American oil painter and IT engineer based in London. Liu was introduced to the principles of fine art at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. She has exhibited at London’s Wimbledon Art Fair and the Chelsea Arts Society, and is a long-distance member of the Salmagundi Club, an exhibition and meeting space in New York City for representational artists.
Liu’s portrait of Kofi was completed at Big Turtle Studio over three Saturday drop-in sessions. The subject was an occasional life model at the studio and sparked Liu’s imagination with his expressive brow bone and ‘aloof slouch’. Working in a communal setting alongside other artist Liu was unable to direct most aspects of the setting, but found that the constraints presented opportunities for sharing and experimentation.
She began the portrait with a thin monochrome underpainting, establishing the shape, design and overall colour washes, before layering more paint alla prima – where paint is applied wet-on-wet. In her portraiture, Liu marries detail and looseness. The minimal brush work of the necklace and t-shirt are perfectly balanced with the details of a slightly raised eyebrow and few defined curls, with neither distracting from the overall portrait.
Technically accomplished but also full of feeling, the judges were impressed by this beautifully rendered and sensitive portrayal of the sitter.
“Congratulations to the prize-winners and all the exhibiting artists who feature in the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025. The final artworks within this year’s selection largely explore relationships, both social and familial, and we are very happy to be able to share these stories on our walls and with the public. We are grateful for the support of our sponsors, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, which allows for free access to this exhibition.”
Victoria Siddall
Director, National Portrait Gallery
“Every portrait in this year’s exhibition captures more than a single point in time. They reflect the richness of human experience, encouraging viewers to contemplate the stories behind each image. I look forward to seeing these striking works displayed in the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award exhibition over the coming months.”
Justin D’Agostino MH
Global CEO, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer
“The alive paint of Moira Cameron’s A Life Lived speaks to our eyes and hearts with a confrontational, life-enhancing power.”
Maggi Hambling CBE
Visual artist
The Portrait Award has gained a reputation as one of the most important platforms for portrait painters. The highly competitive Award encourages artists over the age of 18 to focus upon, and develop, the theme of portraiture in their work. Since its inception, the competition has attracted over 40,000 entries, and the exhibition has been seen by over 6 million people. With a first prize of £35,000, it is one of the largest awards for any global art competition. The second prize winner will receive £12,000 and the third prize winner will receive £10,000.
Included in the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award is the Young Artist Award, which aims to profile talent and help support the career development of a young artist. The winning entrant, aged between 18 and 30, will be awarded a prize of £9,000.
A commission will also be awarded to an artist. A bi-annual award, all artists chosen to exhibit in 2024 and 2025’s Portrait Award exhibitions will be considered for this commission.
