Writers Revealed: Treasures From the British Library and National Portrait Gallery, London
This world-first exhibition pairs author portraits with rare manuscripts, showcasing the work of Jane Austen, Shakespeare and Tolkien and more.
Overview
Paying tribute to great authors and writers is easy. Libraries beckon, as do whatever happens to be on your own bookshelf or Kindle. Getting the chance to celebrate the talents behind some of the greatest works of literature ever committed to paper in a stunning exhibition is far more rare, however. Indeed, Writers Revealed: Treasures From the British Library and National Portrait Gallery, London is a world-first. Clearly, it's a special treat for word nerds — especially if you're a fan of Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, JRR Tolkien, Bram Stoker, the Brontë sisters, Virginia Woolf, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and more.
What goes on display at a showcase dedicated to wordsmiths? Featuring at HOTA, Home of the Arts on the Gold Coast from Saturday, April 12–Sunday, August 3, 2025, Writers Revealed spans author portraits, plus rare handwritten manuscripts and first editions. Over 70 pieces of art include the likenesses of the writers responsible for Pride and Prejudice, Romeo and Juliet, The Lord of the Rings, Dracula, Wuthering Heights, Sherlock Holmes and other masterpieces. More than 100 texts are on the lineup, too, with six centuries of literature covered.
Jane Austen by Cassandra Austen, pencil and watercolour, circa 1810. © National Portrait Gallery, London
As the exhibition's full name states, this is a collaboration between the British Library and the National Portrait Gallery, London. If you're wondering why the two institutions are pairing portraits with texts, one of the showcase's aims to explore how literature and visual expression are linked. Also in the spotlight: the legacy of influential writers, plus digging into their creative processes.
Oscar Wilde, Harold Pinter, William Blake, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, Lord Byron, TS Eliot, Thomas Hardy, James Joyce, DH Lawrence, John Keats, William Wordsworth and Rudyard Kipling are some of the other greats earning Writers Revealed's attention, as are AA Milne, Beatrix Potter, Dylan Thomas, Sir Kazuo Ishiguro and Zadie Smith.
Among the highlights that's filling 1000 square metres in HOTA's Gallery 1 for 16 weeks: Austen's writing desk, what's thought to be the only Shakespeare portrait to be painted while he was alive, illustrated letters from Tolkien to his grandson, Lewis Carroll's diary entry about Alice in Wonderland and Virginia Woolf's handwritten Mrs Dalloway manuscript.
Charles Dickens by Daniel Maclise, oil on canvas, 1839. © National Portrait Gallery, London
Top images: William Shakespeare, associated with John Taylor, oil on canvas, feigned oval, circa 1610. © National Portrait Gallery, London.
Beatrix Potter by Delmar Harmood Banner, oil on canvas, 1938. © National Portrait Gallery, London.
Harold Pinter by Justin Mortimer, oil on canvas, 1992. © National Portrait Gallery, London.
