How do you see yourself? Portraits have always held a special fascination as they give a glimpse into the life of another person in another time. This year The Royal Cornwall Museum will question the nature of portraiture through its new exhibition in the Fine Art Gallery, entitled Not Just A Pretty Face'.

To launch the exhibition a unique free lunch time talk will be given on Thursday April 26 at 1pm in the Fine Art Gallery.

Lucinda Middleton, Curator of Fine and Decorative Arts and Louise McDermott, Community and Family Learning Officer will explore their first time collaboration and the reasoning behind the choice of paintings.

Not Just A Pretty Face' brings together portraits from across the centuries and allows visitors to consider a variety of issues ranging from personal relations to class, gender and identity in diverse media.

"It has been interesting and exciting as well as demanding choosing the pieces for this exhibition," said Lucinda. "This is the first time we have really hung the gallery to deal with a specific issue in mind. Although it was vital that Cornish artists were represented I wanted to give Louise as much choice as possible so that she could develop her community projects."

"The gallery is going to be fantastic and there are going to be lots of different things that the public can get involved in," Louise explained. "I will be conducting tours for visually impaired groups and providing a variety of workshops, in addition to a portraiture project for young people".