Tom Wood
HRH The Prince of Wales (1948-), 1989
Oil on panel
60 x 62 in (152 x 157 cm)
Philip Mould & Co.
To view all current artworks for sale visit philipmould.com This portrait of Prince Charles, which was exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London for twelve years, can be...
To view all current artworks for sale visit philipmould.com
This portrait of Prince Charles, which was exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London for twelve years, can be considered one of the most successful royal portrait commissions of the twentieth century. It was highly praised by Sir Roy Strong, former Director of the National Portrait Gallery, who, after seeing this portrait in 1989, said ‘I think it is the best portrait I’ve ever seen of him’.[1]
Prince Charles first met the artist Tom Wood whilst visiting an exhibition of his work at the Dean Clough Art Gallery in Halifax in 1987, and shortly after requested a sitting with the artist. Two very different portraits were produced from the subsequent sittings; the first remains in the ownership of the Prince and the other, the present work, was produced simultaneously with his permission. This portrait is much larger and more ambitious than the other version, with a greater emphasis on symbolic subject matter.
The first sitting took place in October 1988 at the Prince’s country house, Highgrove in Gloucestershire, and after much discussion it was agreed that the portrait should be informal and show the private Prince, rather than in an official role. During the second visit to Highgrove in 1988, the Prince showed Tom Wood around the Walled Garden, sitting and posing for him under a pergola. This sowed a seed in the artist’s mind for the setting and arrangement of this portrait.
The 40 year-old prince, wearing a suit, is shown in his garden, immersed in nature and looking directly at the viewer. His lips are slightly parted, as if, in the words of the artist, he is ‘ready to converse with the spectator, anxious to elicit a point of view.’[2] The encounter is intimate, rather than formal and his expression is attentive, empathetic and concerned. The silhouette of a classical building, topped with urns and reminiscent of Highgrove, vaguely suggests a crown, and on either side of the Prince are two brooding ghost-like presences, each looking away. They are suggestive of the Prince at different ages, and are also Janus-like, looking into the past and the future. The enigmatic figures may be a reference to Sir Anthony Van Dyck’s triple-portrait of the Prince’s namesake, Charles I, which hangs in the Royal Collection. The side of the plinth is decorated with an antique relief of a lion’s head, and as with all of Wood’s symbols, it is open to interpretation. Perhaps here, it is an image of strength, of royalty and of England.
In late 1989, Prince Charles returned to Halifax to view a special exhibition, HRH The Prince of Wales: A Portrait Commission, which included both portraits with related sketches. The exhibition then toured to Agnew’s in Old Bond Street, London where it was seen privately by Diana, Princess of Wales. During the Agnew’s exhibition, this portrait was sold to a private collector and the National Portrait Gallery immediately requested it to be loaned. The portrait was displayed on the Royal Landing alongside Pietro Annigoni’s portrait of The Queen throughout the 1990s until the owner requested its return in 2012. Prince Charles agreed to loan his version of the portrait to Dean Clough Gallery, where it remains on display in the art gallery.
[1]M. Bailey, ‘Prince Charles: Controversial New Portrait’ in Observer Magazine, 3 September 1989
[2]J. Collins and R. Gibson, H. R. H. the Prince of Wales: A Portrait Commission (Leeds, 1989), p.15
This portrait of Prince Charles, which was exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London for twelve years, can be considered one of the most successful royal portrait commissions of the twentieth century. It was highly praised by Sir Roy Strong, former Director of the National Portrait Gallery, who, after seeing this portrait in 1989, said ‘I think it is the best portrait I’ve ever seen of him’.[1]
Prince Charles first met the artist Tom Wood whilst visiting an exhibition of his work at the Dean Clough Art Gallery in Halifax in 1987, and shortly after requested a sitting with the artist. Two very different portraits were produced from the subsequent sittings; the first remains in the ownership of the Prince and the other, the present work, was produced simultaneously with his permission. This portrait is much larger and more ambitious than the other version, with a greater emphasis on symbolic subject matter.
The first sitting took place in October 1988 at the Prince’s country house, Highgrove in Gloucestershire, and after much discussion it was agreed that the portrait should be informal and show the private Prince, rather than in an official role. During the second visit to Highgrove in 1988, the Prince showed Tom Wood around the Walled Garden, sitting and posing for him under a pergola. This sowed a seed in the artist’s mind for the setting and arrangement of this portrait.
The 40 year-old prince, wearing a suit, is shown in his garden, immersed in nature and looking directly at the viewer. His lips are slightly parted, as if, in the words of the artist, he is ‘ready to converse with the spectator, anxious to elicit a point of view.’[2] The encounter is intimate, rather than formal and his expression is attentive, empathetic and concerned. The silhouette of a classical building, topped with urns and reminiscent of Highgrove, vaguely suggests a crown, and on either side of the Prince are two brooding ghost-like presences, each looking away. They are suggestive of the Prince at different ages, and are also Janus-like, looking into the past and the future. The enigmatic figures may be a reference to Sir Anthony Van Dyck’s triple-portrait of the Prince’s namesake, Charles I, which hangs in the Royal Collection. The side of the plinth is decorated with an antique relief of a lion’s head, and as with all of Wood’s symbols, it is open to interpretation. Perhaps here, it is an image of strength, of royalty and of England.
In late 1989, Prince Charles returned to Halifax to view a special exhibition, HRH The Prince of Wales: A Portrait Commission, which included both portraits with related sketches. The exhibition then toured to Agnew’s in Old Bond Street, London where it was seen privately by Diana, Princess of Wales. During the Agnew’s exhibition, this portrait was sold to a private collector and the National Portrait Gallery immediately requested it to be loaned. The portrait was displayed on the Royal Landing alongside Pietro Annigoni’s portrait of The Queen throughout the 1990s until the owner requested its return in 2012. Prince Charles agreed to loan his version of the portrait to Dean Clough Gallery, where it remains on display in the art gallery.
[1]M. Bailey, ‘Prince Charles: Controversial New Portrait’ in Observer Magazine, 3 September 1989
[2]J. Collins and R. Gibson, H. R. H. the Prince of Wales: A Portrait Commission (Leeds, 1989), p.15
Provenance
Agnew’s, London, 1989;Private collection, UK
Exhibitions
Dean Clough Gallery, Halifax, 1989;National Portrait Gallery, London, 1990-2002;
Millennium Gallery, Sheffield, 2005
Literature
M. Bailey, Observer Magazine, 3 September 1989;J. Collins and R. Gibson, H. R. H. the Prince of Wales: A Portrait Commission (Leeds, 1989);
P. Fuller, ‘Putting the Prince in the Picture’, in Modern Painters, September 1989, vol. 2, issue 3, p.36;
The Times, 28 November 1989, ill;
M. Evans, ed., Princes as Patrons: The Art Collections of the Princes of Wales from the Renaissance to the Present Day, (London, 1998), ill. p.158
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