| Conversation Piece at the Royal Lodge, Windsor | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Herbert James Gunn |
| Completion date | 1950 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 151.1 cm × 100.3 cm (59.5 in × 39.5 in) |
| Location | National Portrait Gallery, London |
Conversation Piece at the Royal Lodge, Windsor is anoil-on-canvas painting byHerbert James Gunn. It is part of the collection of theNational Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London. The painting depictsKing George VI andQueen Elizabeth and their daughters, PrincessesElizabeth andMargaret, taking tea in theRoyal Lodge inWindsor Great Park. It was commissioned by the NPG in 1950.
The painting was commissioned by the trustees of theNational Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London in 1950, andHerbert James Gunn was personally chosen byKing George VI andQueen Elizabeth to paint the portrait.[1][2] Thefine-art photographerPaul Laib photographedHerbert James Gunn in the Drawing Room ofRoyal Lodge in 1950 during Gunn's preparations for the painting.[3] Gunn's working sketch for the painting was part ofQueen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's art collection atClarence House.[4]
The painting is anoil-on-canvas painting and measures59+1⁄2 by39+1⁄2 inches (151 by 100 cm).[1] It depicts the British monarchKing George VI with his consortQueen Elizabeth and their two daughters, PrincessesElizabeth andMargaret,taking afternoon tea in the Royal Lodge inWindsor Great Park.[1] Paintings byJohn Wootton andThomas Lawrence's portrait ofKing George IV are depicted on the wall of the Royal Lodge by Gunn.[2] The room the painting depicts is the Drawing Room of the Royal Lodge, designed byJeffry Wyatville.[5] Gunn had difficulty placingElizabeth's corgi dog in the setting of the portrait and so used a paper cut-out of the dog to move it around the canvas until he was satisfied with its setting.[1]
The title of the painting refers to theconversation piece genre that is characterised by intimate portraits of small groups in social settings.[2] The painting is representative of the informal style that was projected by theBritish royal family in the aftermath of theSecond World War. They are shown taking tea in a way that would have been recognisable to all contemporary British people.[1] The NPG notes that the painting's "domestic character demonstrates changes in perceptions of the monarchy".[1]
In an article on new acquisitions by the NPG,The Times described the painting as "a fantastically painstaking if pedestrian record".[6] In his autobiographyA Mother's Disgrace, the Australian writerRobert Dessaix describesConversation Piece as "superficially boring", and likens the domestic setting to "express[ing] an ideal of seemliness, good taste andbienseance" that people aspired to on theNorth Shore of Sydney in the 1950s.[7]
The NPG did not possess a portrait ofQueen Elizabeth II and so sought to approach the queen through her private secretary,Martin Charteris, to ascertain her receptiveness to a successor painting to Gunn'sConversation Piece.[8] The director of the NPG,Roy Strong, subsequently had lunch with the Queen in 1967 and wrote in his diary that "She denounced the James Gunn and also went on to say that she wouldn't allow a portrait, which has just been finished, to go to Scotland as it was too awful. Another made her into a midget".[8] One of the trustees of the NPG,Lawrence Gowing, wrote to Strong to tell him that "The domestic arrangements of the Royal Family are steadily decreasing in public importance and the only excuse for representing them again would be if we got a really remarkable picture. That, for the moment, I do not see how we are to do. The very few good painters who are capable of it will not do it and the great painter who might is surely unacceptable to the Royal Family".[8] The Italian artistPietro Annigoni was eventually commissioned; his painting of the Queen,Her Majesty in Robes of the British Empire, was revealed in 1970.[8]