‘What makes a Monarch?’ The British Royal Family in Portraiture

Comprehensive online course for ARTscapes looking at the how the British royal family have chosen to be represented since Tudor times.

Desmond Shawe-Taylor, who has previously been the Surveyor of the Queens Pictures, led us through the subject over two hour long sessions with excellent illustrations mainly from the Royal Collection.  It was as much a history course as a history of art one as he covered changes in ideas about the monarchy, how it has adapted over the years and how this is reflected in the art.

The most interesting section, as I knew less about it, was the later Stuart’s post the Glorious Revolution and the Georgians. I loved this picture of two of the son’s of George III by Zoffany from 1765 in Buckingham Palace with portraits of their parent and Van Dyck’s picture of the children of Charles I.

He also talked about how in current times photography is taking over from painting for royal portraits and speculated about whether there will be a formal painted Coronation portrait.

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