This is about “The Winner’s Story – Painting Hannah Fry” and the very last
episode of
Series 12 of Portrait Artist of the Year (2025)
I include this here, because of course
this is not painting so much as printmaking.
I guess that the good people at Storyvault Films forget that artists and
painters are not interchangeable words – and one is a subset of the other.
Either that or they made up this graphic in advance of the series on the basis
you might as well get all the titles done at the same time…..
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| Title frame for the Winner’s Story – Episode 11 of Series 12 of PAOTY (2025) |
That illustrates how much a PAINTER is expected to be the winner.
Yet this year Hannah Barnes,
who is a mono printmaker, won and hence this winner’s story is about the process of moving from winning to
getting the commission to create a portrait of Professor Hannah Fry for the
Royal Society started, worked on, done and then unveiled – as a MONOPRINT.
The portrait was commissioned by the Royal Society as part of a year-long
celebration of the 80th anniversary of the first women elected to its
Fellowship, Kathleen Lonsdale FRS and Marjory Stephenson FRS.
The Sitter and the Unveiling
We’ll start at the very beginning and then the end – with the Sitter and
the Unveiling
Every year the last episode in each series of the “Portrait Artist of the Year” programmes, made by Storyvault Films and broadcast on Sky Arts, is about
the £10,000 Commission awarded to the winning artist.
The Commission
Every year, the winner of the Portrait Artist of the Year Award receives a
£10,000 commission to
-
create a portrait of a specific individual – who is typically well known
and has contributed in a significant way to public life. -
for a particular organisation – who would like to have a portrait of that
individual.
The Client
-
formally founded in 28 November 1660 and formally known as The
Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, - It is a learned society and the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences. It is also known as
the oldest scientific organisation in continuous existence in the
world
In 2025, the Royal Society is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the
admission of the first women to the Royal Society Kathleen Lonsdale and Marjory Stephenson in 1945.
The Sitter
- first ever Professor of the Public Understanding of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Previously she was the Professor of the Mathematics of Cities at University College London (UCL)
- President of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications
- a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
-
has received various awards, including latterly the Royal Society’s David Attenborough Award and Lecture 2024 in recognition of her significant work in public engagement with
science and for her prolific role in popularising mathematics. The medal
is bronze, is awarded annually and is accompanied by a gift of £2,500. - plus she has 1.7 million followers on Instagram @frysquared
assuming that this will probably follow.
The Unveiling
First we all wait,
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Left: Royal Society people and programme presenter Right: Chloe Barnes and Prof. Hannah Fry with her two daughters |
Then we all take a jolly good look
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Keith Moore, Head of Library at the Royal Society comments on the fact this is the first print portrait of a living female scientist at the Royal Society |
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Posing for photographs – Hannah Fry and her daughters with the monoprint by Chloe Barnes |
a news statement / press release about the new portrait of Professor Hannah
Fry.
.
..and then we get to see the portrait
