Forty years ago the then Prince of Wales invited, at his own expense, the artist John Ward to join an official visit to Italy as an official tour artist, with the brief to draw or paint whatever inspired him.
Since then, 42 artists to have undertaken this role, collectively visiting 95 countries during 69 tours, with their work now going on display at Buckingham Palace.
Summer visitors to the State Rooms will see a special exhibition, The King’s Tour Artists, with many of the 70 works on display to the public for the first time.
Ward never carried a camera but always a small sketchbook, and his work From the Afterdeck of HMY Britannia captured a moment of rest during the faced-paced tour.
Britannia features also in Susannah Fiennes’s watercolour of two royal yachtsmen after the daily routine of lowering and raising the flag during the tour to Hong Kong for the 1997 handover to China, the royal yacht’s last before decommissioning.
The pace of the tour to Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Jamaica in 2000 meant Mary Anne Aytoun Ellis requested to travel ahead to the Kaieteur Falls in Guyana, which had been allocated just 15 minutes of royal time.
In 2009, Richard Foster chose to capture the then Prince Charles and the then Duchess of Cornwall on a visit to the uninhabited Galápagos island of North Seymour.
Kate Heard, the exhibition’s curator, said: “This fascinating group of works tells the story of 40 years of official travel and artistic patronage. The freedom given to each artist to capture a personal impression of the countries visited has led to the formation of a rich and varied collection.
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“Encompassing landscapes, figure studies and still life subjects, these works are testament to His Majesty’s deep engagement with and encouragement of artists over the past four decades.”
An accompanying publication, The Art of Royal Travel: Journeys with the King features more than 100 illustrations telling behind the scenes stories of the tours.