Not surprisingly, I have been thinking of the big John Wonnacott painting of the Royal Family, done for the Queen Mother’s 100th. birthday in 2000, commissioned as a way of showing the different generations of the Royal Family – a sense of their interaction, their family relationships and of the succession, which didn’t seem such an issue then.
In retrospect, I wonder if it should have been done in Clarence House, not Buckingham Palace, but it was a self-conscious updating of John Lavery’s The Royal Family at Buckingham Palace (1913). I notice that pictures acquire a different aura of significance long after the event:-
https://www.apollo-magazine.com/the-many-faces-of-the-queen/?s=09
I’m looking at Julian Calder’s portrait on display today in the NGS Portrait Gallery. I have to say I find it very odd.
https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/130821?utm_campaign=709703_QUEEN%20PP%20portrait%20on%20display%20Sep%202022&utm_medium=email&utm_source=National%20Galleries%20of%20Scotland&dm_i=6LDB,F7LZ,1HYNP7,1U58B,1
Yes, I hadn’t seen this. It does look a bit odd, not least because she looks so unhappy being out on the moor in the wrong outfit. Charles