“The Queen – Art & Image” Having toured Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, this presentation of royal images has arrived in the capital for a summer long show highlighted as an inquisitive exhibition into portraiture. So curiosity led me to browse this collection to see if it had ‘a startling range of artistic creativity’ as per NPG press release.
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| Jubilee Celebrations - an image from a big screen on the Thames Embankment! |
Well portraiture, I would have thought amongst the artistic genres need the least explanation, it’s a picture of a person, just the Queen in this instance with only a few painted images in this rather small exhibition! It is true that today we see far more portrait photographs than we do paintings; who hasn’t got a likeness on Facebook, indeed I have mine as a profile picture. The act of commissioning a portrait is something few of us will do but what if? Do we, like the Queen, have a public face?
The answer is yes! How many times have we hated photographs of ourselves only to alter our appearance so that we stage a pose with our best side turned towards the camera. We are all vain to some extent and a camera records dispassionately whereas painters bring their own subjective response to a portrait, but are we willing to accept the artist’s own personal vision?
It something the Queen has submitted to as Her Majesty has sat for countless portraits and has presided over many changes in trends and technology which have changed the way her image is presented to us; this is very plain to see in the exhibition. Yet despite the differing artistic approaches very few leading artists have captured the essence of her character and appearance. There is no doubt that many have felt uneasiness with a sitter of such status but at the same time have we, the viewers become too familiar with the Queen’s image?
Walking around and looking at the display of royal pictures, you do sense a passage of time not just for the Queen but for your own perceived history. There’s a lot of “oh I remember that” as many of the pictures were reproduced in the newspapers of the time. It is as if we know the Queen but at the same time we don’t know her. We see her likeness time and again yet it is an enigma, we are so blinded by familiarity that we don’t really question the person pictured. Whether contrived or not, the regal distance is always maintained and I suspect that the Queen over the last sixty years has learnt the secret of just showing a public face. This barrier I suspect is the reason why very few artists, even photographers have overcome the painter and sitter dialogue to portray a successful conversation between sitter and viewer.
Thinking more as an observer, there are very few portraits of the Queen which I have viewed over the years that has captivated me as a viewer, none seem to capture her heart and soul, only fractions of her character. The 1955 portrait by the Italian painter Pietro Annigoni, which on display in the NPG’s exhibition, comes closest, although it’s a very conventional and formal. Idealized in some respects, almost renaissance in manner but there is too much empty space to the top of the work for my liking. Less ostentatious than past ‘ruler’ portraits, it gives a sense of regal continuity with a youthful likeness of the Queen thoughtful in her role of monarch embarking upon her reign. Annigoni’s portrait is probably the only work that we have some small inkling that the Queen actually liked this representation of herself.
However, there is one work at the other extreme that is equally captivating but infamously unflattering. Lucian Freud’s critically divided portrait of the Queen which is also part of the exhibition, is an intriguing work although its small scale is a surprise. Artistically I found his portrayal most insightful and the artist has captured something beyond a mocking caricature. It holds the attention as there is a sense of tension between sitter and painter, the Queen’s top lip is a little too pursed, the look is almost haughty, did the painter getting beneath the public face or perhaps a sign of the sitter’s disapproval?
So how difficult is it to portray the royal likeness? I wanted to see for myself but I admit that portraiture is not my forte. Consequently I put pencil to paper to sketch her Majesty so that I could understand more about the person that has reigned over us for sixty years. Facial expressions are intricate but drawing eyes, noses and mouths becomes more straightforward with practice. However portraiture is about combining them all into an appearance that expresses personality and subsequently a likeness. Easier said than done!
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| From My Sketch Book: Queen Elizabeth II - "Congratulation Your Majesty on your Diamond Jubilee" |
Further reading that may be of interest is an article entitled the 'reverential and the real' published by the Art Newspaper, excellent picture of the Queen sitting for the portrait by Lucian Freud!
©MRMansell 2012
