National Portrait Gallery's art to tour England

This portrait of Queen Elizabeth I is by an unknown English artist in around 1588

The National Portrait Gallery is to send some of its best pieces of Tudor art out on loan together, for the first time, to exhibitions across England.

Well-known works from the London-based gallery will head to Sheffield later this year, then on to Bath, Liverpool and York in 2022.

Gallery bosses have called the tour "a once in a generation opportunity".

It comes as the St Martin's Place site is closed until spring 2023 due to a £35.5m redevelopment project.

The Tudors: Passion, Power and Politics will open at The Holburne Museum in Bath in January 2022.

Bloomsbury artworks

It will showcase 25 of the gallery's most famous Tudor portraits, including the five monarchs, Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I, as well as other significant figures such as Sir Thomas More.

An expanded exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool will then take place the following May, featuring 68 works.

Before that, the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield will play host to Beyond Bloomsbury: Life, Love And Legacy in November this year, before moving to York Art Gallery in March 2022.

Virginia Woolf by George Charles Beresford, 1902

It will feature key figures from the Bloomsbury set - a group of prominent artists, writers and thinkers from the first half of the 20th Century - including Virginia Woolf and her sister, the painter Vanessa Bell.

"We are delighted to be partnering with our colleagues in Bath, Liverpool, Sheffield and York to create this once in a generation opportunity to see some of the nation's best-loved portraits exhibited together outside of London," said Dr Nicholas Cullinan, director of the National Portrait Gallery.

"Through all our projects and partnerships we hope to be able to share our collection with new and different audiences across the UK, some of whom may not have had the opportunity to visit the gallery in London."

Other exhibitions and displays will open in the coming months in Coventry, Plymouth, Sudbury and beyond.