The National Gallery Masterpiece Tour, Mignard: The Power of Posing

An exhibition at South Shields Museum & Art Gallery centred on Pierre Mignard's 1691 portrait The Marquise de Seignelay, part of the National Gallery Masterpiece Tour.

South Shields Museum & Art Gallery hosts Pierre Mignard's The Marquise de Seignelay (1691) as one of four UK partners in the National Gallery Masterpiece Tour 2025–27. The exhibition explores how seventeenth-century portraiture communicated wealth, status and personality through pose, clothing, setting and expression. Visitors are invited to look closely at the details of the paintings and consider the stories artist and sitter chose to tell.