A NEW portrait of Prince Charles, set against a wintry Scottish landscape, has been unveiled at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
The painting, by the Scottish artist Victoria Crowe, was painted at Birkhall, on the Balmoral Estate in Royal Deeside, earlier this year when the landscape was covered in snow.
It is the first portrait of the Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay, to enter the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) collection.
The unveiling of the portrait comes at the galleries stage the first major exhibition of Crowe's portraits, Beyond Likeness.
The portrait shows the heir to the throne in jacket and tie, sitting in a wicker chair, set against a backdrop of bare trees.
Ms Crowe said: "This commission was a very great pleasure… I had four sittings at Birkhall.
"The first visit was intensely vivid, with beautiful light on the landscape, thick snow around and plummeting temperatures.
"His Royal Highness was extremely relaxed and generous during the sittings and we talked about painting, the Royal Drawing School and shared interests, as well as attitudes to conservation and ecology."
- Read more: Prince discusses importance of bio-security
She added: "The more we spoke the more I realised the importance Birkhall and the sanctuary it had provided.
"So, the landscape element of the painting became very specific.
"I felt that so much of his thinking was rooted in a deep love of the natural world… and indelibly linked with a philosophy of respect and sustainability.
"I was not painting a symbol of power or establishment but an engaging, thoughtful and sympathetic human being.
"Because of time constraints, I had to paint as directly as possible... no time for many sketches”.
- Read more: Prince curates Buckingham Palace exhibition
Christopher Baker, director of European and Scottish Art and Portraiture at the National Galleries of Scotland, said: “We are delighted with this new portrait for the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland.
"It is a deeply thoughtful and sensitive portrayal of His Royal Highness and encompasses all the subtlety, insight and delight in painterly effects that Victoria Crowe’s work is rightly renowned for.
"It also perfectly complements the experience of seeing her impressive exhibition currently at the Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. ”
Crowe's exhibition features portraits of actors, authors, publishers, composers and scientists, including Nobel Laureate Sir Peter Higgs, composer Thea Musgrave and astrophysicist Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel