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Painted from life in 1994, this extraordinary head study of Diana, Princess of Wales can rightly be described as the most affecting painted portrait of the ‘People’s Princess’. Painted from life, and informal in character, it was taken as the Princess sought refuge from the maelstrom of publicity that attended her faltering marriage to Prince Charles. Its recent emergence from the deceased artist’s studio at a sale in New York and its subsequent repatriation to the UK represents a significant iconographic addition to twentieth century British royal history.

This oil sketch was painted in preparation for a full-length portrait commissioned in 1994 which previously hung at Kensington Palace and is now on display at Althorp in Northamptonshire. Diana sat for thirty-five hours over the course of thirty sittings at Shanks’ London studio and became close friends with both the artist and his wife, Leona. During this time of great uncertainty, Diana confided in a letter to Nelson and Leona that ‘…coming to the studio was a safe haven, so full of love and support.’ Nelson was one of the foremost American figurative portrait painters of his day and his comforting demeanour had been refined over many years through sittings with prominent subjects such as Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Luciano Pavarotti.

During the initial sittings with Diana, Nelson made several quick studies, capturing authentic expressions onto canvas which he would then have had the option of using as source material for the final portrait. The present work is preeminent amongst them for its depth of characterisation, showing the princess glancing downwards, as if caught in a moment of quiet introspection. Diana’s expression is strikingly honest and was perhaps considered too direct for the final portrait which shows Diana in a less revealing, if slightly detached idiom. The final work is nevertheless a defining image within Diana’s canon of portraits.

Diana was regarded as one of the most fashionable women of her day and one of her best-known garments from the mid-1990s was the green velvet halter dress by Catherine Walker she is shown wearing in this portrait. Diana was photographed by Mario Testino wearing the dress for the June 1997 issue of Vanity Fair and it was more recently included in an exhibition on Diana’s fashion legacy Diana: Her Fashion Story at Kensington Palace in 2017. The dress was Nelson’s original choice of costume; however, it was agreed that more traditional, classicising white blouse and blue skirt would be worn for the final portrait.

Whilst sitting for Nelson, Diana’s private life was in turmoil. Her relationship with Prince Charles had become a national obsession and she was being harangued by the press who accused her of extramarital affairs and other misdemeanours. Against a backdrop of leaked telephone conversations and bitter exchanges with Charles - culminating in the latter’s infamous interview with Jonathan Dimbleby in June 1994 - Diana continued her charity work and helped launch Child Bereavement UK, which is now supported by Prince William as Royal Patron. With so much negativity and salaciousness surrounding her every move, it is perhaps surprising that Diana was able to commit so wholeheartedly to the portrait sittings. In so doing, however, she unwittingly provided a remarkable visual testimony - in the form of the present work - of the emotional strain placed on someone who was ultimately unprepared and overwhelmed by such a conspicuous and demanding public role.