Dame Christabel Pankhurst
- Artist: Ethel Wright
- Date: 1909
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 64 in. x 38 1/8 in. (1625 mm x 967 mm) overall
- Portrays: Dame Christabel Pankhurst
- Museum: The National Portrait Gallery
- Collection record: The National Portrait Gallery website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is “Dame Christabel Pankhurst” by Ethel Wright. The portrait shows her sitting upright, eyes looking straight ahead with a slight head tilt that gives the sense of attentive conversation. She wears a dress in the WSPU’s official colors—white, green and purple—and a simple black hat on her head. The brushwork is smooth but deliberate, lending texture to the fabric folds and depth to her face.
Wright painted this after seeing Pankhurst speak at a public event; he wanted to capture that energy. It first appeared at London’s Women’s Exhibition in 1909, a fund‑raising gala for the suffrage campaign. The canvas is oil on canvas, about two metres long and one metre high, giving it a commanding presence.
Pankhurst studied law at Manchester University, joined her mother Emmeline’s Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903, and led rallies that sometimes turned militant. Her activism earned her the title Dame in 1936.
See it in person
Dame Christabel Pankhurst is in the collection of The National Portrait Gallery at St Martin's Place, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
