Prince & Patron
A look at some of King Charles III's, then The Prince of Wales, personal favourite artworks and objects, as part of The Buckingham Palace Summer Opening 2018
Prince & Patron
To mark the 70th birthday of King Charles III, then The Prince of Wales, visitors to the Summer Opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace in 2018 enjoyed a special display featuring a number of works of art personally selected by His Royal Highness.
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The King has enjoyed a life-long passion for art. The exhibition featured his favourite art works from the Royal Collection and his private collection. It also included work by artists supported by charities which His Royal Highness is patron.
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These include The Royal Drawing School, The Prince's Foundation School of Traditional Arts, and Turquoise Mountain. The works shared the highest standards of artistry and craftsmanship, qualities which The King admires in art past and present, from this country and the world.
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At the centre of the exhibition sits this imposing cedar wood pavilion, created by classical carver Nasser Mansouri.
Born in Afghanistan, Nasser was taken on as a woodwork master at The Turquoise Mountain Institute, a charity set up by The then Prince to support historic areas and traditional crafts.
Prince and Patron ExhibitionRoyal Collection Trust, UK
Around the outside of the Pavilion visitors could view an assortment of exquisite pieces - from family portraits to fine historic furniture, and even Napoleon's cloak.
"With this exhibition, His Royal Highness really wanted to focus particularly on the work of the artists being supported by his charities, and to put the focus on them, rather than on him," says Vanessa Remington, Senior Curator of Paintings at the Royal Collection Trust.
"The Prince had a very, very strong hand in the selection. It was entirely a personal choice. He selected 25 works from across the Royal Collection, which must have been incredibly difficult, because of the scale of the collection," she adds.
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"There are something like 8,000 oil paintings, 25,000 works on paper, and half a million objects - so it was quite a difficult task to condense that down to 25," Vanessa explains.
"But his list of favourites included works across all disciplines, across all media, from across the range of the collection," she says.
"It covers a huge range, both in terms of date, in terms of media, and in terms of the look. There were textiles, works like Napoleon's Cloak, a solid silver table, paintings, drawings by Hans Holbein the Younger."
The earliest work featured was from the early 16th century, right through to works that were finished just weeks before the exhibition.
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Many of the artworks on display here - including the portraits of military veterans - are from The Royal Drawing School.
Prince and Patron ExhibitionRoyal Collection Trust, UK
Prince and Patron ExhibitionRoyal Collection Trust, UK
Prince and Patron ExhibitionRoyal Collection Trust, UK
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This wall features some of the most significant pieces from The then Prince's private collection.
"I would say the most important work on display was a work by Lucian Freud, called Bowl of Ferns (displayed to the left of the triple portrait of The Prince), which was actually given to His Royal Highness for his fiftieth birthday," Vanessa says.
"This came from His Royal Highness's private collection, and was displayed for the first time since it has been in his possession."
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Above the Freud painting are sketches of Prince William and Prince Harry, also from The then Prince's private collection.
"These are very attractive, very vibrant likeness sketches, which were preparatory sketches for the first official commission of them, a double portrait, that's in the National Portrait Gallery," Vanessa says.
"They were very popular with exhibition visitors, and show the Princes both wearing the uniform of the Blues and Royals, the uniform that we recently saw Prince Harry wear for his wedding."
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Also featured were two of The Prince's own watercolour paintings of Balmoral.
"Although the exhibition was called Prince & Patron, it might equally well have been called Prince, Patron & Artist," Vanessa says.
"It's well known that His Royal Highness paints watercolours himself, and is very engaged with art, with drawing, and with painting. The selection really shows how interested he is in the process of creating, as much as a finished product, and what artists have gone through, and the skills they're displaying in producing their artworks."
Triple Portrait of The King, then Prince of Wales (b. 1948) by Susan Crawford (b. 1941)Royal Collection Trust, UK
"That really comes across in the selection, his very particular interest in the craftsmanship, the artistry that's being shown," says Vanessa.
"Although it was a very, very diverse selection, a compelling range of works, from carpets to porcelain, what each and every piece showed was the very highest standard of artistry, or craftsmanship, of that type," she adds.
"Each piece was an example of the very best of its type, and His Royal Highness recognises that."
Prince and Patron ExhibitionRoyal Collection Trust, UK
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Many of the artworks and objects on display here come from The Prince's Foundation School of Traditional Arts.
Prince and Patron ExhibitionRoyal Collection Trust, UK
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Tribuna of the Uffizi (1772 - 1777) by Johan ZoffanyRoyal Collection Trust, UK
Sakyamuni Buddha with his two disciples by Renuka GurungRoyal Collection Trust, UK
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Vertumnus and Pomona by BrusselsRoyal Collection Trust, UK
Portraits of Yezidi women who escaped ISIS captivity by Hannah Rose ThomasRoyal Collection Trust, UK
This striking icon painting was the final piece to be added to the exhibition.
"It's a triptych portrait, painted in tempera, showing three Yazidi women. The artist, Hannah Rose Thomas, had been trained in these very traditional techniques at The Prince's School of Traditional Arts," Vanessa explains.
"The Prince of Wales has taken a very personal interest in the plight of the Yazidi community and their suffering. When he saw this very moving group of portraits in the diploma show, he particularly asked for it to be included in the exhibition," she adds.
"It was only a matter of weeks before the exhibition opened, so that gives an insight into the personal nature of the selection."
