Francis Goodman: Back In Focus

Photographs by Francis Goodman (1913-89) will go on display from 23 April 2013 at the National Portrait Gallery, London to mark the centenary of Goodman’s birth. This first museum retrospective display will include his portrait, fashion and photojournalistic work. His subjects came from the worlds of art, design, film and high society. The Gallery has recently researched and catalogued most of the extensive archive bequest of his work. Most of the works have not been on public display before.

The majority of Goodman’s early work was lost during World War II but his surviving collection of original negatives was bequeathed to the National Portrait Gallery in 1989. This commemorative display will contain over 40 black and white photographs spanning Goodman’s career from the 1930s to the 1970s. Francis Goodman: Back in Focus will include portraits of artists Pietro Annigoni, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and writers Margery Allingham, Noël Coward, Patricia Highsmith and Nancy Mitford.