London’s National Portrait Gallery is gradually returning to life. After a three-year, £44mn refurbishment, builders have completed the main sections of its 1896 building off Trafalgar Square and the paintings are being rehung in preparation for its reopening in June. I walk past portraits of Tudor kings and queens to Room 16, where an official in a hard hat unlocks the panelled doors.
A single painting hangs inside, its faded gilt frame bearing a plaque reading “Sir Joshua Reynolds”. It is Reynolds’ “Portrait of Omai”, or “Omiah” as it was called when displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts’ annual exhibition in 1776, the year America declared independence. Neither is quite right, for the true name of the Polynesian islander who sailed to Britain was Mai.
