These are just some of the portraits and connections in Shakespeare to Winehouse: Icons from the National Portrait Gallery London, now on at the National Portrait Gallery.

While the London gallery is undergoing refurbishment, 84 of its more than 200,000 paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, and miniatures have travelled to the Netherlands and South Korea. Now Canberra is the only city in Australia hosting the exhibition.

While portraits are displayed chronologically in London, for this exhibition they have been divided into six categories - Fame, Identity, Self, Love & Loss, Innovation and Power.

Curator Joanna Gilmour said the juxtaposition of works from different periods and in different styles and media allowed viewers to consider the works, subjects, artistic styles and ideas across time.

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Ms Gilmour has three favourite portraits in the exhibition.

One is the portrait of authors Anne, Emily and Charlotte Bronte by their brother Branwell, painted about 1834.

It was thought to have been lost until it was found on top of a cupboard in 1914.

"I love the Bronte sisters - I'm obsessed with them. Branwell wasn't a talented painter by any means: he was a young man and an amateur painter," Ms Gilmour said.

However, she admired the painting's "wonderful sincerity and directness".

Another favourite was the 1575 portrait of Queen Elizabeth I attributed to Nicholas Hilliard.

"It's so exquisitely painted," Ms Gilmour said, with the gold threads and pearls adorning the queen painstakingly detailed by the artist.

Her third favourite is Anthony van Dyck's final self-portrait, from about 1640.

"He's such a virtuoso painter and there's a wonderful swagger."

Shakespeare to Winehouse: Icons from the National Portrait Gallery London is on at the National Portrait Gallery until July 17, 2022. More information and tickets: portrait.gov.au.