Breakfast with the Queen

Let’s face it, none of us are overly keen on being captured for posterity first thing in the morning while we tuck into our breakfast and look forward to the day ahead. But a rare portrait of the Queen, showing her doing just that, will be on display to visitors to Sandringham from today. And it was produced by none other than the Duke of Edinburgh.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh on their recent visit to Kent - a portrait by the Duke from 40 years ago will be on display from today

(photo Kent Online)

The monarch was captured at the breakfast table in a painting by the Duke which will feature for the first time in an exhibition which opens at Sandringham today. And it provides an intimate and unique view of the Queen, a representation that perhaps no one else could ever have captured. Not only is it a portrait of the Monarch, it is a brief glimpse of the life she shares with her consort.

The portrait provides a glimpse inside the Palace walls

In it, the Queen is seen sitting at the breakfast table reading a newspaper with bread and marmalade spread out before her. There is crisp white linen, pure white china and simple cutlery laid on the table as well. But while the fare may be simple, the setting is anything but. Prince Philip painted his wife at breakfast at Windsor Castle and he also captures the grandeur of the location showing the gilt trims in the room and his own impression of the portraits by Stubbs which are hanging on the Castle walls.

The majesty of Windsor Castle is also captured in the breakfast portrait

The oil painting is from 1965 and it has been seen in public once before when it was included in a book, The Royal Portrait: Image and Impact, which looked at how portraits shape our impression of royalty. In that 2010 work the painting sat alongside studies by Holbein and Van Dyck to compare how art has contributed to perceptions of the Monarchy. The emergence of the painting, and its use in this 2015 exhibition, confirm the Duke of Edinburgh’s love of painting. It’s one of his lesser known hobbies although he was captured at the easel during the filming of the famous TV film of the Royal Family made in 1969.

The Duke of Edinburgh has been a keen artist for years

Now visitors to Sandringham can appreciate the Duke’s artistic talents for themselves. The work features in this year’s special collection which focuses on paintings by royalty. Also on display are pieces by Queen Alexandra, the Queen’s great grandmother, who loved both art and photography. There are portraits, too, by Alexandra’s niece the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia who turned to painting to make a living after she fled her homeland following the Russian Revolution. And there’s a chance to see some very personal items belonging to the Royal Family as birthday cards by them for one another at the start of the 20^th century are also on display.

Alexandra of Denmark, later Queen of England, was a keen painter

But perhaps the most interest will be in the work of the Duke of Edinburgh. When it was included in that 2010 book the assistant curator of paintings at the Royal Collection, Jennifer Scott, described it as having a ‘lovely impressionistic quality’. Whatever its style, it is a rare chance to see life behind the scenes of the palace and castle doors. And it shows us the modern face of Monarchy as seen from within.