Presence: The Art of Portrait Sculpture – in pictures

Sons' Heads, 2012, by Daphne Wright ‘The two boys, sawn off above the elbow, appear immured in the plinth,’ writes Observer art critic Laura Cumming, ‘suffering, as it were, for their mother’s art’
Photograph: Frith Street Gallery

Bronze portrait of a North African man, 300BC ‘Two thousand years ago, this youth had copper-plated lips, bone teeth and eye sockets fitted with glinting enamel. He must have looked so alive. But even now he has the vitality of character’ Photograph: The British Museum

Yoko XXI, 2008, by Don Brown ‘What unites all these sculptures is exactly what the show’s title alludes to – their curious and even sensational presence’
Photograph: Don Brown

Charles Townley, 1807, by Joseph Nollekens (1737-1805) ‘A sculpture portrays a sitter quite differently than a picture; its presence comes, in part, from being bodied forth in the full dimensions of life, from  space in the same way as real people’ Photograph: Townley Hall Museum and Art Gallery

Colley Cibber, from the workshop of Sir Henry Cheere (1671-1757) ‘This portrait pushes some essential life-likeness button while remaining conspicuously artificial; it is not just a matter of suspending disbelief’ Photograph: National Portrait Gallery London

Lydia Dwight Dead, 1674, by John Dwight (1633-1703) ‘The real as opposed to the ideal, the lifelike vignette against the marmoreal statue, the effect of colour, scale, clothes or glass eyes: all sorts of ideas are kept in play in the exhibition’ Photograph: Victoria & Albert Museum

Head from a green siltstone statue of a young man with curly hair, 100-75BC Throughout the show, ‘heads are hewn out of stone, appearing monumental even when smaller than life; or modelled in clay that’s still quick with the maker’s mark. They aspire to the timelessness of statues or they attempt to overcome it with a glittering eye or a touch of blusher to the cheek’ Photograph: The British Museum

Ron Mueck's Mask II, 2001-2002 ‘It has the look of life itself, down to the faint sheen of sweat. But walk round the back and the hollow mould is exposed, as if to say that this artifice is only skin-deep’ Photograph: Anthony d'Offay

Sir (Francis) Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell, 5th Bt., 1922, by Frank Dobson ‘The exhibition has a fine celebrity cast [but also suggests that] factual truth isn't necessarily the route to a perfect portrait’ Photograph: Frank Dobson/National Portrait Gallery London

Plaster cast of the death mask of Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1769-1830. Unknown artist ‘Prone on his plaster pillow, Lawrence looks less than real, and certainly less than himself; only art can make him into a portrait’ Photograph: National Portrait Gallery London