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Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe on Wednesday became the youngest person other than members of the British royal family to have an individual picture at Britain National Portrait Gallery.
Stuart Pearson Wright's likeness of Radcliffe, 16, is one of an exhibition of more than 40 new works opening at the famous central London gallery.
The artist, who has previously painted the schoolboy wizard's creator Joanne "JK" Rowling, captured Radcliffe, wearing jeans and a t-shirt and looking thoughtful in an armchair in his studio, two years ago.
"It's very weird. It's fantastic. It's a very, very strange feeling," the young actor said of the portrait. "It's a great honour to be in there among such amazing actors and actresses."
Radcliffe, who is currently shooting "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", the fifth film based on the best-selling books, posed three or four times for the artist over the course of about 14 to 15 hours.
"It was probably quite hard for me to keep still," he said, but deferred to Wright's superior skills: "In terms of painting, drawing and sketching I'm utterly talentless."
The Radcliffe portrait will go on display alongside nine others Wright has made of actors, including Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall -- Potions teacher Severus Snape and Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter movies.
Wright won the BP Portrait Award in 2001, and two years later painted a controversial portrait of Queen Elizabeth II's husband Prince Philip naked from the waist up.
Gallery director Sandy Nairne said: "Stuart Pearson Wright's drawings are wonderfully-wrought studies in figure and character -- the gallery is very pleased to have been able to acquire a fascinating group of subjects."
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AFP 111826 GMT 04 06
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