Marc Dalessio has won the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026 for Jean-Denis, a portrait of his neighbour painted in the artist’s studio in southwest France. The work, completed over six sittings, takes its title from the sitter, who arrived one morning at Dalessio’s studio and asked to be painted. The judges awarded it the £35,000 first prize, citing its restrained handling, emotional immediacy and the subtle compositional details that give the portrait what they described as a quiet authority.
Dalessio was born in Los Angeles and trained in Florence. He has built his reputation primarily as a plein-air landscape painter, and portraiture is something of a return for him. After relocating to the south of France and restoring a former artist’s studio, he began painting family members and residents, using the space’s natural north light. Jean-Denis is the result of that longer process of settlement and attention, which perhaps helps explain the quality of presence the judges responded to.
The exhibition opens to the public at the National Portrait Gallery on 25 June and runs until 7 October 2026, featuring 51 shortlisted portraits selected from 1,474 submissions by artists from 63 countries. It then travels to Derby Museum and Art Gallery from November 2026 and to The Gallery at The Arc in Winchester from March 2027.
Chloe Cox for What’s Mine is Yours,
Second prize, worth £12,000, went to a double portrait of foster carers Marva and Lionel Warmington. Cox is Manchester-based and self-taught, and has developed a sustained practice of portraiture of underrepresented communities. King Charles III previously commissioned her to mark the 75th anniversary of the Windrush crossing. The judges praised the work for its technical accomplishment and what they called its powerful expression of connection, care and shared humanity. Both descriptions feel accurate without quite capturing what makes a good portrait good, which is something Cox seems to understand intuitively.
Michael Slusakowicz, Charlie, and Magda
Third prize of £10,000 was awarded to a London-based artist for a double portrait described by the judges as visually arresting and distinguished by bold colour and originality. The work draws on the artist’s interest in magical realism and takes friendship and conversation as its starting point. It is the kind of painting that announces itself immediately and rewards longer looking.
In Our Borderlands, 2025 by Joel Nichols © Joel Nichols
The Young Artist Award, carrying a £9,000 prize and open to artists aged 18 to 30, went to Joel Nichols for In Our Borderlands, a large-scale portrait addressing identity, vulnerability and human connection. Nichols recently completed postgraduate study at the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford. The judges noted a technically sophisticated use of light and psychological depth, which, for a recent postgraduate, suggests someone already working at a level beyond what the category usually produces.
Victoria Siddall, Director of the National Portrait Gallery and chair of the judging panel, noted the quality and diversity of this year’s submissions. The competition has received more than 50,000 entries since its inception, and exhibitions of shortlisted works have attracted over six million visitors. As portrait painting competitions go, it remains the most significant in the world, and the 2026 shortlist, drawn from a genuinely international field, reflects that standing.
Top Photo: Jean-Denis, 2025 by Marc Dalessio © Marc Dalessio