1. LORDS JOHN AND BERNARD STEWART
by ANTHONY VAN DYCK
Many of van Dyck's greatest portraits were the ones he painted during his early career in Italy. However, he later moved to England and found fame for his paintings of the cavalier court of King Charles I. So influential were these paintings that we can now only imagine that period in history through his work. This portrait of Lord John Stuart and his brother Bernard is certainly imposing. It was painted around 1638, before both men were killed fighting for the Royalist side in the Civil War. Despite this, van Dyke's portrait actually portrays them as spoilt, arrogant cavaliers.

2. JAN SIX
by REMBRANDT
Perhaps I should have chosen a self-portrait of the great artist to include in my top ten. However, Rembrandt's amazing portrait of the Dutch scholar, Jan Six, has all the freedom of brushwork we usually associate with the painter Frans Hals. All the props have been dispensed with in this 1654 masterpiece. Here is a man who chose to be painted nonchalantly pulling on a pair of gloves. The bravura brushwork is unsurpassed. Six was a serious collector of art in all its forms during the golden age of the Netherlands. He owned a number of paintings by Rembrandt and was also a personal friend.

3. MR & MRS CLARK & PERCY
by DAVID HOCKNEY
A rare portrait that epitomises an era. Indeed, this 1970-71 portrait is an icon of the Swinging Sixties. It is understandably the most popular work in Tate Britain. This picture has all the elegance and casualness of a new age. However, beneath it lurks an uncertainty. This is perfectly caught in fashion designer Ossie Clark's quizzical, troubled glance. The painting shows Clark and his wife, Celia Birtwell, just after their wedding, at which Hockney was best man. It featured in the top ten of Radio 4's Greatest Paintings In Britain vote, in 2005.

4. SELF PORTRAIT
by VINCENT VAN GOGH
Van Gogh famously painted many self-portraits during the final years of his life. Self-portraits of artists are an absorbing genre but this tense one, painted in 1888, captures the artist only months before his mental breakdown. He was passionate about creating what he called 'the modern portrait'  -  something quite different from a photograph. This picture is a monument to self-examination, tense and brooding and, in its way, a landmark.

5. LA BELLA
by TITIAN
Titian's women are unashamedly sexy. He was a member of the 16th century Venetian school and one of the great portrait painters. Titian brought a fresh eye to women on canvas, depicting them as stunning, sensuous beauties. The Italian reflected this in his treatment of the flesh tones, as well as the tactile quality of their costume, in his oil on canvas paintings. La Bella was possibly a portrait of Eleonora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, painted in the 1530s. There are so many amazing portraits by Titian it is difficult to know which one to choose.