Controversial royal portraits
Welcome to this month's edition of The Royal Archive
Hello, Royal Clubbers, wishing you a very happy Sunday, and a welcome to this month’s edition of The Royal Archive, where we look back at historical places, people and events that have a link to the present.
A week ago the King and Queen had their coronation portraits unveiled, and we asked some experts and you, our lovely readers, what you thought.
Lots of you got in touch to give your verdict on the portraits, and a big thank you to everyone who responded to the poll – I can reveal 56 per cent of you preferred Queen Camilla’s portrait (me too!), while 34% liked both equally, and just 12 per cent preferred King Charles’s.
I spoke to Kate O’Donoghue, curator of international fine art at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, which actually houses a Hans Holbein portrait of King Henry VIII.
Kate explained why royal portraits have historically been so important. “Portraits have always played an important role, religiously, socially and politically. They can tell us a lot about a person but also reveal much about the artist who captured them. Portraits present a version of the sitter, a construction of a certain persona, usually to reflect things like power, intelligence or desirability. This can be communicated in many ways, through pose, what someone is wearing or holding, and where they’re located.
“Portraits have the power to bring history to life. Consider the Tudors - for centuries they have been a cultural phenomenon and continue to capture the interest and imagination of audiences. This is in part because they are the first English royal dynasty for which we have an extensive visual record through portraiture, which was explored in the Walker Art Gallery’s 2022 exhibition The Tudors: Passion, Power and Politics in partnership with the National Portrait Gallery.”
This got me thinking about times in history when royal portraits have caused a stir for one reason or another, so I took a look into the archives to find some of the most controversial royal portraits throughout history – and asked Kate to weigh in.