How Prince Charles's Watercolors Tell The Story of His Life
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below."
When you walk into the Garrison Chapel at the Chelsea Barracks, the first things to catch your eye are Queen and Prince Philip. Imposing busts of the monarch and her late consort, created by sculptor Lady Petchey, stand side by side beneath an ornate window. Just a few feet away, an equally as faithful bronze likeness of their eldest son looks straight ahead.
The sculptures may be something of a surprise—a bonus even—to visitors to the chapel, because they are not currently the main event. This honor falls instead to the much-trailed “largest-ever” exhibition of Prince Charles’s watercolor paintings. Open with free entry until February 14, visitors can survey 79 paintings that the Prince selected himself for display from work he created since the late 1980s.
Offered upfront as you approach is some insight into what the Prince thinks about it all. “I am under no illusion that my sketches represent great art or a burgeoning talent! They represent, more than anything else, my particular form of ‘photograph album’ and, as such, mean a great deal to me,” a message on the wall reads. He also cites his “first sketches” (he is understood to have taken up painting in his 20s in the 1970s) declaring “I’m appalled by how bad they are.” So what kept him going? “You become increasingly aware of things that may have escaped your attention previously—things like the quality of light and shade, of tone and texture and of the shape of buildings in relation to the landscape. It all requires the most intense concentration and, consequently, is one of the most relaxing and therapeutic exercises I know. In fact, in my case, I find it transports me into another dimension which, quite literally, refreshes parts of the soul which other activities can’t reach.”
But it is not his words that tell the most interesting story here. As curator Rosie Alderton points out to T&C, it is the paintings that tell us "of the Prince’s travels around the world,” the places he visited, but also “through the medium of watercolor how he feels about them.”
Strikingly, a huge proportion of the chosen works were painted in Scotland. There is the Lochnagar mountain close to Balmoral, which also inspired a children’s book written by the Prince in 1980 called The Old Man of Lochnagar. He has painted scenes from the Castle of Mey in Caithness, once privately owned by the Queen Mother, who Charles affectionately described as “quite simply the most magical grandmother.” “It is no secret that Scotland is a place that is very special for him,” Rosie says. “As anyone who has visited Scotland will know, it offers incredibly inspiring settings; it speaks to the soul and I think that is why so many of the Prince’s works are painted there.”
Each of a smattering of landscapes from around the world has a story to tell about the Prince’s official or unofficial travels. A pinkish skyline of the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania is dated 1997; the location and timing suggesting it was created when the Prince took his sons to Africa following Princess Diana’s death. There are paintings from Provence in France and snowy scenes from Klosters in Switzerland—once famed as the royals’ ski resort of choice. Visitors are introduced to the Prince’s love of Romania with a scene from Transylvania, and there are, of course, impressions of Wales.
The oldest painting in the exhibition is of Turkey’s Bodrum Castle from 1989, and the most recent was created in 2018. “It is interesting to compare ‘Bodrum Castle’ to some of His Royal Highness’s more recent artworks,” Rosie says. “These newer pieces are more fluid in style; brush strokes are more instinctive and rhythmic. The use of color is more bold; several pieces feature complimentary colors in close proximity to one another which gives artworks a certain vibrancy and dynamism.”
This is not the first time that the Prince’s watercolors have been on display. 50 were shown at Hampton Court for his 50th birthday in 1998 and 30 have since been exhibited in Australia. Signed lithographs of some have been sold to raise money for his charitable foundation. Rumor has it that the Prince has not painted much since 2019, but he already has almost 700 pieces to his name. He is self-deprecating about their value as “great art.” But few can argue that they capture a fascinating story about the man who will one day be king.
The free exhibition of the Prince of Wales’s watercolors runs until Monday 14 February (not including January 31 to February 4) at The Garrison Chapel at Chelsea Barracks in Belgravia, London. For more information visit princes-foundation.org.
You Might Also Like