Introduction
Known/Unknown explores the relationship between painted portraits, their owners and the environments they share. Using selected portraits by the society painter Philip de László, the work considers the nature of collecting and remembering, and how this is influenced by class, wealth and gender.
The images investigate how public and private collections are formed and the effect this has on who is remembered, by whom and for what reason. The photographic portraits suggest the importance of the owner and the stories they tell in shaping, developing or losing the layers of meaning within a portrait.
