Like Queen Victoria before him, King Charles III has always been a keen amateur painter and patron of art. Only one of his own works appears among the 74 on display in this new exhibition in the ballroom of Buckingham Palace (appallingly lit, sadly but inevitably) as part of its summer opening — a 1985 watercolour of the flag fluttering from the afterdeck of HMY Britannia, painted alongside the artist John Ward as he depicted the same view. His Majesty’s flag is a bit heavy, but his sketch of the Italian frigate hoving into view just past it is rather good.

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Ward was the first artist that the King, then the Prince of Wales, invited to accompany him on an international tour, a practice he has continued at his own expense for 40 years. He has acquired some 300-odd works from these artists for his private collection and this show has been curated from his selection.

Illustration of a British flag on a ship, with a warship in the background.

The King’s painting from the afterdeck of HMY Britannia

AG CARRICK LTD/ROYAL COLLECTIONS TRUST

Illustration of the afterdeck of HMY Britannia with a Union Jack flag.

John Ward’s painting of the same view from 1985

© JOHN WARD. PHOTOGRAPH: ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST

The brief, other than “keep up” (a challenge that many of them talk about in the accompanying book — the pace seems relentless), is to create a record, as they see fit, and to take inspiration from anything, whether that be the reflection of an elegant building on the water (Luke Martineau, Bal Samand Palace, 2010) or the intense negotiations witnessed at a local fish market (Neale Worley, Muscat, 2013).

It’s not always easy — in Japan in 1990 the emperor’s security forbade Peter Kuhfeld from painting during any ceremonial events. Instead, after the completion of a 38-course lunch, he stuck around to paint the beautiful tearoom (though he nearly got thrown out halfway through by the American Secret Service, sweeping the room ahead of another lunch immediately after). The resulting oil, capturing the light and shadows of the elegant space, betrays none of this frustration, only tranquillity.

Painting of a Japanese room with a low table and sliding doors open to a garden.

Morning in the Hatakeyama, Japanese Room, 1990, by Peter Kuhfeld

© PETER KUHFELD. PHOTOGRAPH: ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST

Still, keeping up is evidently key. The American artist Luke Allsbrook had 30 minutes to produce his oil sketch of the Weber farmhouse in Marin County surrounded by an epic rural landscape and including, very tiny, the royal tour party trudging across the vast fields to reach the house.

But it can push an artist to try something new. On his fourth tour, in Saudi Arabia in 2007, James Hart Dyke found the pressure of finishing a landscape while an entourage, complete with machineguns, stood around waiting to be unbearable, so he switched to working from sketches and photographs — the portraits produced this way of Charles and Queen Camilla, then the Duchess of Cornwall, are excellent.

Painting of Prince Charles.

HRH The Prince of Wales, 2007, by James Hart Dyke

© JAMES HART DYKE. PHOTOGRAPH: ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST

Painting of the Duchess of Cornwall.

HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, 2007, by James Hart Dyke

© JAMES HART DYKE. PHOTOGRAPH: ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST

As most people know, His Majesty’s taste tends towards the traditional. This is a selection of extremely polite, well-executed works, quite a number of which feel like they could have been produced at any time in the past two centuries (though not Fraser Scarfe’s iPad drawing of the Basilica of San Vitale, made just a couple of months ago).

There are a few standouts, among them Richard Foster’s excellent 2009 watercolour of their majesties on North Seymour Island, one of the Galapagos Islands — though shown from the back, Camilla is unmistakable just from the set of her shoulders. I also love Hart Dyke’s Man in Silk Coat, painted in Nigeria in 2007, with its imperious motion, while the Turner prize nominee Claudette Johnson’s 2022 sketch of a young girl in Rwanda is instantly recognisable as hers.

But what’s actually interesting about most of these are the stories behind them, which are only to be found in the rather expensive book — I hope that the audioguide features some of them because otherwise, as an exhibition, this falls a bit flat.
★★★☆☆
Buckingham Palace, Jul 10 to Sep 28, rct.uk

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