‘I finished the painting in my Hackney Wick studio. She asked me what paintings I liked. At the time I was really into Gainsborough and Reynolds. “I think we’ve got a few of those,” she said – she has a very sharp sense of humour and I hope I’ve portrayed that in the way she’s smiling enigmatically. She was also very animated and enjoyed the music outside during the changing of the guard. ‘I had two sittings and she was really chatty, lively and charming. It could have been overwhelming as a 28-year-old at the start of my career but she put me completely at ease and I think that comes out in the painting. I included it in the portrait because she’s a human being and I felt it showed an element of vulnerability. ‘When the Queen came in she was carrying a blanket and put it on the side of her chair. In 1947, Queen Mary gave it to her granddaughter Elizabeth as a wedding present. It has become such a familiar image through its appearance on our banknotes and coins. ‘I wanted the Queen to wear national colours, red, blue and white, and so I’d chosen the Order of Star and Garter dress, which I thought summed her up as both a person and an icon. She also wore the diamond Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, a gift to the future Queen Mary in 1893. I wanted to paint the Queen quite close up – so many other portraits, including Annigoni’s, had been fairly distant. ‘I drove to Buckingham Palace in my red VW Beetle with its boot bristling with paintbrushes. When I told the guards I was there to paint the Queen they laughed. “The Queen would like you to paint her portrait.” I remember taking the call in the flat I was living in in Surbiton with my girlfriend Emma, now my wife. ‘Then I received a call from the League’s Director-General, Robert Newell. ‘T he Royal Over-Seas League used to have an annual open exhibition of young artists and I had submitted a portrait of a guy in a red jacket holding a brush, which led to a commission to paint the Chairman of the Over-Seas League and former director of Air India, Maneck Dalal. I painted Mr Dalal in his garden and it had a slight feel of Matisse to it.
‘It was great fun to paint William and Harry together, as they weren’t intimidated by the process. People imagine Harry to be a bit shambolic but, ultimately, he’s a Sandhurst-trained army officer, has natural authority and is very articulate.’ Christian FurrĬhristian Furr is a contemporary artist who was, at 28, the youngest ever artist to paint the Queen in 1995. His portrait hangs in the public foyer of the Royal Over-Seas League in London.Ĭhristian Furr, Her Majesty The Queen, 1995
#Contemporary portrait painter full
‘Call me a purist, but as Clarence House faces south, I asked them to come to my studio in South Kensington. What’s amazing is that no one even noticed when they arrived and clanked into my house in full dress uniform with spurs, swords and the lot.
I wanted to put dogs in the portrait and the Queen asked, “How many do you want?” ‘In 2008 William and Harry chose me to paint them for the National Portrait Gallery after they saw a self-portrait I submitted to the Gallery’s BP Awards and another portrait I’d painted of a 25-year-old man. I arrived at Clarence House and, in the hallway, I saw Harry sitting casually on a table with his hand on his hip and immediately that fitted my view of how he was. ‘It was the Queen’s 134th portrait so I was so impressed by how she chatted away and was great fun. I love horses and dogs too, so, obviously, we talked about those – she has such an infectious laugh, which really broke the ice. She tells us more: ‘I was originally commissioned to paint the Queen by Royal Mail for the Diamond Jubilee Commemorative First Class stamp. I was commissioned just to paint her head but I asked if I could paint her full length as well. As the Royal Mail wanted a glimpse of the garter robes, it was agreed.
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