''Conversation Piece at the Royal Lodge, Windsor'' is an oil-on-canvas painting by

Herbert James Gunn Sir Herbert James Gunn RA RP (30 June 1893– 30 December 1964) was a Scottish landscape and portrait painter. Early life Sir Herbert James Gunn (also known as Sir James Gunn) was born in Glasgow on 30 June 1893, the son of Richard Gunn, a dr ...

. It is part of the collection of the

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: *National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra *National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London, with s ...

(NPG) in London. The painting depicts

King George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of Ind ...

and

Queen Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elisabeth or Elizabeth the Queen may refer to: Queens regnant * Elizabeth I (1533–1603; ), Queen of England and Ireland * Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022 ...

and their daughters Princesses Elizabeth and

Margaret Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian. Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular througho ...

taking tea in the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park. It was commissioned by the NPG in 1950.

Background

The painting was commissioned by the trustees of the

in London in 1950, and

was personally chosen by

and

to paint the portrait. The

fine-art photographer Fine-art photography is photography created in line with the vision of the photographer as artist, using photography as a medium for creative expression. The goal of fine-art photography is to express an idea, a message, or an emotion. This stand ...

Paul Laib Paul Laib (Hamburg, 1869 - 1958) was a naturalised British subject who worked as a fine art photographer in his residence at 3 Thistle Grove, Drayton Gardens, South Kensington, London. Biography During the early decades of the twentieth century, ...

photographed

in the Drawing Room of Royal Lodge in 1950 during Gunn's preparations for the painting. Gunn's working sketch for the painting was part of

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was the l ...

's art collection at Clarence House.

Description

The painting is an oil-on-canvas painting and measures . It depicts the British monarch

with his consort

and their two daughters, Princesses Elizabeth and

taking afternoon tea in the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park. Paintings by John Wootton and Thomas Lawrence's portrait of

King George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

are depicted on the wall of the Royal Lodge by Gunn. The room the painting depicts is the Drawing Room of the Royal Lodge. It was designed by Jeffry Wyatville. Gunn had difficulty placing Elizabeth'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. The title of the painting refers to the conversation piece genre that is characterised by intimate portraits of small groups in social settings. The painting is representative of the informal style that was projected by the British royal family in the aftermath of the Second World War. They are shown taking tea in a way that would have been recognisable to all contemporary British people. The National Portrait Gallery notes that the painting's "domestic character demonstrates changes in perceptions of the monarchy".

Reception and aftermath

In an article on new acquisitions by the National Portrait Gallery, ''The Times'' described the painting as "a fantastically painstaking if pedestrian record". In his autobiography ''A Mother's Disgrace'', the Australian writer

Robert Dessaix Robert Dessaix (born 17 February 1944) is an Australian novelist, essayist and journalist. Biography Robert Dessaix was born in Sydney and adopted at an early age by Tom and Jean Jones, after which he was known as Robert Jones. Tom Jones, a ...

describes ''Conversation Piece'' as "superficially boring" and likens the domestic setting to "express ngan ideal of seemliness, good taste and ''bienseance''" that people aspired to on the North Shore of Sydney in the 1950s. The NPG did not possess a portrait of

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

and so sought to approach the queen through her private secretary,

Martin Charteris Lieutenant-Colonel Martin Michael Charles Charteris, Baron Charteris of Amisfield, (7 September 1913 – 23 December 1999) was a British Army officer and courtier of Queen Elizabeth II. Charteris was the longest-serving Assistant Private Secr ...

, to ascertain her receptiveness to a successor painting to Gunn's ''Conversation Piece''. The director of the NPG, Roy Strong, subsequently had lunch with Elizabeth 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". 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". The Italian artist Pietro Annigoni was eventually commissioned; his painting of the Queen, '' Her Majesty in Robes of the British Empire'', was revealed in 1970.

References

{{Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon 1950 paintings 20th-century portraits Cultural depictions of Elizabeth II Cultural depictions of George VI Paintings in the National Portrait Gallery, London Portraits by English artists Portraits of the British Royal Family Portraits of women