EO Hoppé’s portraits - in pictures

The London portraits of forgotten photography pioneer EO Hoppé go on show at the National Portrait Gallery: The 'Pearlies', Master William Dennis Simmons, London, 1922 Photograph: © 2011 Curatorial Assistance, Inc/E.O. Hoppé Estate Collection

Nightwatchman, Bank of England, London, 1925. The melodrama of his job is not lost on Hoppé's subject, notes Observer art critic Laura Cumming. He is 'humorously colluding' with the photographer Photograph: © 2011 Curatorial Assistance, Inc© 2011 Curatorial Assistance, Inc/E.O. Hoppé Estate Collection

Vaslav Nijinsky as Spectre de la Rose in Le Spectre de la Rose, 1914: 'Here is the isolation of the leading role, matched by the physical strain of its interpretation' Photograph: © 2011 Curatorial Assistance, Inc/E.O. Hoppé Estate Collection

British Museum Underground Station, 1937. Hoppé's style achieved a superlative balance between clarity and softness Photograph: © 2011 Curatorial Assistance, Inc/E.O. Hoppé Estate Collection

Ezra Pound, 1918 Photograph: © 2011 Curatorial Assistance, Inc/E.O. Hoppé Estate Collection

Children, Limehouse, London, 1934. Hoppé also took a series of images of the notoriously camera-shy Chinese community in Limehouse by hiding his camera in a brown paper bag. This was several years ahead of Walker Evans's hidden shots on the New York subway Photograph: © 2011 Curatorial Assistance, Inc/E.O. Hoppé Estate Collection

Zookeeper Ernie Bowman and Hippopotamus, Joan, London, 1934 Photograph: © 2011 Curatorial Assistance, Inc/E.O. Hoppé Estate Collection

Film-maker Fritz Lang, 1929 Photograph: © 2011 Curatorial Assistance, Inc/E.O. Hoppé Estate Collection

Drinking tea in the busmans’ canteen, London, c.1936 Photograph: © 2011 Curatorial Assistance, Inc/E.O. Hoppé Estate Collection

Thomas Hardy at home in Dorset, 1914 Photograph: © 2011 Curatorial Assistance, Inc/E.O. Hoppé Estate Collection

Regent Street, London, 1934 Photograph: © 2011 Curatorial Assistance, Inc/E.O. Hoppé Estate Collection

Tilly Losch, dancer, 1928. 'Her luminous eyes are locked with yours,' says Laura Cumming. 'Trapped between the lens and the wall, her beauty fills the frame: to her, as to us, inescapable' Photograph: © 2011 Curatorial Assistance, Inc/E.O. Hoppé Estate Collection

Westminster Underground Station, London, 1937 Photograph: © 2011 Curatorial Assistance, Inc/E.O. Hoppé Estate Collection