The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world. [1] [2] [3]
Spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King Charles III and overseen by the Royal Collection Trust. The British monarch owns some of the collection in right of the Crown and some as a private individual. It is made up of more than one million objects, [4] including 7,000 paintings, more than 150,000 works on paper, [5] this including 30,000 watercolours and drawings, [6] and about 450,000 photographs, [7] as well as around 700,000 works of art, including tapestries, furniture, ceramics, textiles, carriages, weapons, armour, jewellery, clocks, musical instruments, tableware, plants, manuscripts, books, and sculptures.
Some of the buildings which house the collection, such as Hampton Court Palace, are open to the public and not lived in by the Royal Family, whilst others, such as Windsor Castle and Kensington Palace, are both residences and open to the public. The public King's Gallery at Buckingham Palace in London was purpose-built in the mid-20th century to exhibit pieces from the collection on a rotating basis. There is a similar art gallery next to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, and a Drawings Gallery at Windsor Castle. The Crown Jewels are on public display in the Jewel House at the Tower of London.
About 3,000 objects are on loan to museums throughout the world, and many others are lent on a temporary basis to exhibitions. [4]
Few items from before Henry VIII survive. The most important additions were made by Charles I, a passionate collector of Italian paintings and a major patron of van Dyck and other Flemish artists. He purchased the bulk of the Gonzaga collection from the Duchy of Mantua. The entire Royal Collection, which included 1,500 paintings and 500 statues, [8] was sold after Charles's execution in 1649. The 'Sale of the Late King's Goods' at Somerset House raised £185,000 for the English Republic. Other items were given away in lieu of payment to settle the King's debts. [9] A number of pieces were recovered by Charles II after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, and they form the basis for the collection today. The Dutch Republic also presented Charles with the Dutch Gift of 28 paintings, 12 sculptures, and a selection of furniture. He went on to buy many paintings and other works.
George III was mainly responsible for forming the collection's outstanding holdings of Old Master drawings; large numbers of these, and many Venetian paintings including more than 40 Canalettos, joined the collection when he bought the collection of Joseph "Consul Smith", which also included a large number of books. [11] Many other drawings were bought from Alessandro Albani, cardinal and art dealer in Rome. [12]
George IV shared Charles I's enthusiasm for collecting, buying up large numbers of Dutch Golden Age paintings and their Flemish contemporaries. Like other English collectors, he took advantage of the great quantities of French decorative art on the London market after the French Revolution, and is mostly responsible for the collection's outstanding holdings of 18th-century French furniture and porcelain, especially Sèvres. He also bought much contemporary English silver, and many recent and contemporary English paintings. [13] Queen Victoria and her husband Albert were keen collectors of contemporary and old master paintings.
Many objects have been given from the collection to museums, especially by George III and Victoria and Albert. In particular, the King's Library formed by George III with the assistance of his librarian Frederick Augusta Barnard, consisting of 65,000 printed books, was given to the British Museum and later transferred to the British Library, where they remain as a distinct collection. [14] He also donated the "Old Royal Library" of some 2,000 manuscripts, which are still segregated as the Royal manuscripts. [15] The core of this collection was the purchase by James I of the related collections of Humphrey Llwyd, John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley, and the Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel. [16] Prince Albert's will requested the donation of a number of mostly early paintings to the National Gallery, which Queen Victoria fulfilled. [17]
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The Royal Collection in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth II (53:08) – lecture by Caroline de Guitaut, the then Deputy Surveyor of the King's Works of Art, Haughton International Seminar 2023 |
Throughout the reign of Elizabeth II (1952–2022), there were significant additions to the collection through judicious purchases, bequests, and gifts from nation states and official bodies. [18] According to guidelines drawn up in 1995 and updated in 2003, gifts given to the royal family by foreign heads of state and dignitaries in an official capacity cannot be sold or traded and automatically become part of the Royal Collection. [19] Since 1952, approximately 2,500 works have been added to the Royal Collection. [9] The Commonwealth is strongly represented in this manner: an example is 75 contemporary Canadian watercolours that entered the collection between 1985 and 2001 as a gift from the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour. [20] Modern art acquired by Elizabeth II includes pieces by Sir Anish Kapoor, Lucian Freud, and Andy Warhol. [9] In 2002 it was revealed that 20 paintings (excluding works on paper) were acquired by the Queen in the first 50 years of her reign, mostly portraits of previous monarchs or their close relatives. Eight were purchased at auction, six bought from dealers, three commissioned, two donated or bequeathed, and one was a purchase from Winchester Cathedral. [21] [22]
In 1987 a new department of the Royal Household was established to oversee the Royal Collection, and it was financed by the commercial activities of Royal Collection Enterprises, a limited company. Before then, it was maintained using the monarch's official income paid by the Civil List. Since 1993 the collection has been funded by entrance fees to Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. [23]
A computerised inventory of the collection was started in early 1991, [24] and it was completed in December 1997. [25] The full inventory is not available to the public, though catalogues of parts of the collection – especially paintings – have been published, and a searchable database on the Royal Collection website is increasingly comprehensive, [26] with "271,697 items found" by late 2020. [27]
About a third of the 7,000 paintings in the collection are on view or stored at buildings in London which fall under the remit of the Historic Royal Palaces agency: the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Banqueting House, Whitehall, and Kew Palace. [28] The Jewel House and Martin Tower at the Tower of London also house the Crown Jewels. A rotating selection of art, furniture, jewellery, and other items considered to be of the highest quality is shown at the King's Gallery, a purpose-built exhibition centre adjoining Buckingham Palace. [29] Many objects are displayed in the palace itself, the state rooms of which are open to visitors for much of the year, as well as in Windsor Castle, Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, and Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. Some works are on long-term or permanent loan to museums and other places; the most famous of these are the Raphael Cartoons, in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London since 1865. [30]
The collection's holdings of Western fine art are among the largest and most important assemblages in existence, with works of the highest quality, and, in many cases, artists' oeuvres cannot be fully understood without a study of the holdings contained within the Royal Collection. There are more than 7,000 paintings, spread across the Royal residences and palaces. The collection does not claim to provide a comprehensive, chronological survey of Western fine art but it has been shaped by the individual tastes of kings, queens and their families over the past 500 years.
The prints and drawings collection is based in the Print Room, Windsor, and is exceptionally strong, with famous holdings of drawings by Leonardo da Vinci (550), Raphael, Michelangelo and Hans Holbein the Younger (85). A large part of the Old Master drawings were acquired by George III. [32] Starting in early 2019, 144 of Leonardo da Vinci's drawings from the Collection went on display in 12 locations in the UK. [33] From May to October that year, 200 of the drawings were on display in the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace. [34]
Numbering more than 300 items, the Royal Collection holds one of the greatest and most important collections of French furniture ever assembled. The collection is noted for its encyclopedic range as well as counting the greatest cabinet-makers of the Ancien Régime.
Pair of cabinets, Robert Hume, c. 1820 (The Crimson Drawing Room, Windsor Castle)
Four Florentine pietra dura panels on 18th century cabinets, re-adapted, c. 1820s (The White Drawing Room, Buckingham Palace)
The collection has a number of items of clothing, including those worn by members of the Royal family, especially female members, some going back to the early 19th century. These include ceremonial dress and several wedding dresses, including that of Queen Victoria which set the trend for white wedding dresses (1840). [40] There are also servant's livery uniforms, and a number of exotic pieces presented over the years, going back to a "war coat" of Tipu Sultan (d. 1799). [41] In recent years these have featured more prominently in displays and exhibitions, and are popular with the public.
A collection of 277 cameos, intaglios, badges of insignia, snuff boxes and pieces of jewellery known as the Gems and Jewels are kept at Windsor Castle. Separate from Elizabeth II's jewels and the Crown Jewels, 24 pre-date the Renaissance and the rest were made in the 16th to 19th centuries. In 1862, it was first shown publicly at the South Kensington Museum, now the Victoria and Albert Museum. Several objects were removed and others added in the second half of the Victorian period. An inventory of the collection was made in 1872, and a catalogue, Ancient and Modern Gems and Jewels in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, was published in 2008 by the Royal Collection Trust. [42]
The Royal Collection is privately owned, although some of the works are displayed in areas of palaces and other royal residences open to visitors for the public to enjoy. [43] Some of the collection is owned by the monarch personally, [44] and everything else is described as being held in trust by the monarch in right of the Crown. It is understood that works of art acquired by monarchs up to the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 are heirlooms which fall into the latter category. Items the British royal family acquired later, including official gifts, [45] can be added to that part of the collection by a monarch at their sole discretion. Ambiguity surrounds the status of objects that came into the possession of Elizabeth II during her 70-year reign. [46] The Royal Collection Trust has confirmed that all pieces left to her by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, which included works by Monet, Nash, and Fabergé, belonged to her personally. [47] It was also confirmed that she owned the royal stamp collection, inherited from her father George VI, as a private individual. [48]
Non-personal items are said to be inalienable as they can be willed to only the monarch's successor. The legal accuracy of this claim has never been substantiated in court. [49] According to Cameron Cobbold, then Lord Chamberlain, speaking in 1971, minor items have occasionally been sold to help raise money for acquisitions, and duplicates of items are given away as presents within the Commonwealth. [46] In 1995, Iain Sproat, then Secretary of State for National Heritage, told the House of Commons that selling objects was "entirely a matter for the Queen". [50] In a 2000 television interview, the Duke of Edinburgh said that the monarch was "technically, perfectly at liberty to sell them". [29]
Hypothetical questions have been asked in Parliament about what should happen to the collection if the UK ever becomes a republic. [51] In other European countries, the art collections of deposed monarchies usually have been taken into state ownership or become part of other national collections held in trust for the public's enjoyment. [52] Under the European Convention on Human Rights, incorporated into British law in 1998, the monarch may have to be compensated for the loss of any assets held in right of the Crown unless he or she agreed to surrender them voluntarily. [53]
A registered charity, the Royal Collection Trust was set up in 1993 after the Windsor Castle fire with a mandate to conserve the works and enhance the public's appreciation and understanding of art. [54] It employs around 500 staff and is one of the five departments of the Royal Household. [55] Buildings do not come under its remit. In 2012, the team of curatorial staff numbered 29, and there were 32 conservationists. [56] Income is raised by charging entrance fees to see the collection at various locations and selling books and merchandise to the public. The Trust is financially independent and receives no Government funding or public subsidy. [57] A studio at Marlborough House is responsible for the conservation of furniture and decorative objects. [58]
Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trust lost £64 million during 2020 and announced 130 redundancies, including the roles of Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures and Surveyor of the Queen's Works of Art. [59] The two posts were reinstated in December 2023.
The Royal Collection Trust is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales, and a Registered Charity. [60] On its website, the Trust describes its purpose as overseeing the "maintenance and conservation of the Royal Collection, subject to proper custodial control in the service of the King and the nation". It also deals with acquisitions for the Royal Collection, and the display of the Royal Collection to the public.
The Board of Trustees includes the following officers of the Royal Household: the Lord Chamberlain, the Private Secretary to the Sovereign and the Keeper of the Privy Purse. Other Trustees are appointed for their knowledge and expertise in areas relevant to the charity's activities. Currently, the trustees are: [61]
The Management Board is the committee responsible for the day-to-day running of the Royal Collection. It is appointed by the Board of Trustees.
It consists of:
The Operations Board represents all areas of the Royal Collection Trust and focuses on high-level, operational issues and the delivery of Royal Collection Trust’s strategy.
It consists of:
Buckingham Palace is a royal residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It has been a focal point for the British people at times of national rejoicing and mourning.
Giacomo Francesco Zuccarelli was an Italian artist of the late Baroque or Rococo period. He is considered to be the most important landscape painter to have emerged from his adopted city of Venice during the mid-eighteenth century, and his Arcadian views became popular throughout Europe and especially in England where he resided for two extended periods. His patronage extended to the nobility, and he often collaborated with other artists such as Antonio Visentini and Bernardo Bellotto. In 1768, Zuccarelli became a founding member of the Royal Academy of Arts, and upon his final return to Italy, he was elected president of the Venetian Academy. In addition to his rural landscapes which frequently incorporated religious and classical themes, Zuccarelli created devotional pieces and on occasion did portraiture. Besides paintings, his varied output included etchings, drawings, and designs for tapestries as well as a set of Old Testament playing cards.
Antonio Verrio was an Italian Baroque painter. He was responsible for introducing Baroque mural painting into England and served the Crown over a thirty-year period.
The Wallace Collection is a museum in London occupying Hertford House in Manchester Square, the former townhouse of the Seymour family, Marquesses of Hertford. It is named after Sir Richard Wallace, who built the extensive collection, along with the Marquesses of Hertford, in the 18th and 19th centuries. The collection features fine and decorative arts from the 15th to the 19th centuries with important holdings of French 18th-century paintings, furniture, arms and armour, porcelain and Old Master paintings arranged into 25 galleries. It is open to the public and entry is free.
Anglesey Abbey is a National Trust property in the village of Lode, 5+1⁄2 miles (8.9 km) northeast of Cambridge, England. The property includes a country house, built on the remains of a priory, 98 acres of gardens and landscaped grounds, and a working mill.
Ham House is a 17th-century house set in formal gardens on the bank of the River Thames in Ham, south of Richmond in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The original house was completed in 1610 by Thomas Vavasour, an Elizabethan courtier and Knight Marshal to James I. It was then leased, and later bought, by William Murray, a close friend and supporter of Charles I. The English Civil War saw the house and much of the estate sequestrated, but Murray's wife Catherine regained them on payment of a fine. During the Protectorate his daughter Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Dysart on her father's death in 1655, successfully navigated the prevailing anti-royalist sentiment and retained control of the estate.
Pietra dura, pietre dure or intarsia lapidary, called parchin kari or parchinkari in the Indian Subcontinent, is a term for the inlay technique of using cut and fitted, highly polished colored stones to create images. It is considered a decorative art. The stonework, after the work is assembled loosely, is glued stone-by-stone to a substrate after having previously been "sliced and cut in different shape sections, and then assembled together so precisely that the contact between each section was practically invisible". Stability was achieved by grooving the undersides of the stones so that they interlocked, rather like a jigsaw puzzle, with everything held tautly in place by an encircling 'frame'. Many different colored stones, particularly marbles, were used, along with semiprecious, and even precious stones. It first appeared in Rome in the 16th century, reaching its full maturity in Florence. Pietra dura items are generally crafted on green, white or black marble base stones. Typically, the resulting panel is completely flat, but some examples where the image is in low relief were made, taking the work more into the area of hardstone carving.
Carlton House, sometimes Carlton Palace, was a mansion in Westminster, best known as the town residence of King George IV, particularly during the regency era and his time as prince regent. It faced the south side of Pall Mall, and its gardens abutted St James's Park in the St James's district of London. The location of the house, now replaced by Carlton House Terrace, was a main reason for the creation of John Nash's ceremonial route from St James's to Regent's Park via Regent Street, Portland Place and Park Square: Lower Regent Street and Waterloo Place were originally laid out to form the approach to its front entrance.
The King's Gallery, previously known as the Queen's Gallery, is a public art gallery at Buckingham Palace, the official residence of the British monarch, in London. First opened to the public in the reign of Elizabeth II in 1962, it exhibits works of art from the Royal Collection on a rotating basis. Enlarged in the early 21st century, the gallery has its own separate public access entrance built in a "new" classical style and typically displays about 450 works, mainly paintings and drawings.
On 20 November 1992, a fire broke out in Windsor Castle, the largest inhabited castle in the world and one of the official residences of the British monarch. The castle suffered extensive damage and was fully repaired within the next five years at a cost of £36.5 million, in a project led by the conservation architects Donald Insall Associates. It led to Queen Elizabeth II paying tax on her income, and to Buckingham Palace, one of her other official residences, being opened to the public to help pay for the restoration work. This event was part of what the Queen called her annus horribilis.
Martin Carlin was a Parisian ébéniste (cabinet-maker), born at Freiburg, who was received as Master Ébéniste at Paris on 30 July 1766. Renowned for his "graceful furniture mounted with Sèvres porcelain", Carlin fed into the luxury market of eighteenth-century decorative arts, where porcelain-fitted furniture was considered among "the most exquisite furnishings" within the transitional and neoclassical styles. Carlin's furniture was popular amongst the main great dealers, including Poirier, Daguerre, and Darnault, who sold his furniture to Marie Antoinette and many amongst the social elite class. He died on 6 March 1785.
The Music Lesson, Woman Seated at a Virginal or A Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman by Johannes Vermeer is a painting of a young female pupil playing a virginal during a music lesson with a male teacher. The man's mouth is slightly agape giving the impression that he is singing along with the music that the young girl is playing. This suggests that there is a relationship between the two figures and the idea of love and music being bridged together. This was a common theme among Netherlandish art in this time period. Vermeer consistently used the same objects within his paintings such as the draped rug, the white water jug, various instruments, tiled floor and windows that convey light and shadows. This is one of few paintings produced by Vermeer which were kept in his home until his death in 1675 when his family was forced to sell them. It became a part of the Royal Collection, and it is currently on display in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace in London.
The Royal Collection Project is a body of seventy five contemporary Canadian watercolours housed within The Royal Collection of H.R.H King Charles III.
Shepherd with a Flute, or Boy with a Pipe, is a painting in oil on canvas of perhaps 1510–1515, in recent decades usually attributed to Titian, though in the past often to Giorgione. It is now in the Royal Collection in the King's Closet at Windsor Castle. Since at least 1983 it has been called Boy with a Pipe by the Royal Collection; previous titles the collection recognise include Shepherd with a pipe, and The Shepherd.
Alexander Marshal was an English entomologist, gardener and botanical artist, noted for four albums of paintings, including the florilegium he compiled, consisting of some 160 folios of plants cultivated in English gardens, and finally presented to George IV in the 1820s.
Charles I in Three Positions, also known as the Triple Portrait of Charles I, is an oil painting of Charles I of England painted 1635–1636 by the Flemish artist Sir Anthony van Dyck, showing the king from three viewpoints: left full profile, face on, and right three-quarter profile. It is currently part of the Royal Collection.
Martin Yeoman is an English painter and draughtsman who drew members of the British Royal Family. He was commissioned to draw the Queen's grandchildren and accompanied Charles, Prince of Wales, on overseas tours as tour artist. He is described as one of the finest draughtsmen working today and is a member of Senior Faculty at the Royal Drawing School.
The Yellow Drawing Room is a room in Buckingham Palace. It is noted for its Chinoiserie decorative scheme and has been the setting for many portraits of members of the British royal family.
Conversation Piece at the Royal Lodge, Windsor is an oil-on-canvas painting by Herbert James Gunn. It is part of the collection of the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London. The painting depicts King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and their daughters, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, taking tea in the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park. It was commissioned by the NPG in 1950.
The Marriage of the Prince of Wales is a painting by the British artist William Powell Frith, created in 1863-1865. It is held in the Royal Collection in London and as of July 2024 hangs in the Principal Corridor at Buckingham Palace.
Some people know that this is perhaps the finest, and certainly what the royal palaces website proudly calls "the largest private collection of art in the world".
A nationwide celebration during 2019
There is a computerised inventory of the Royal Collection which identifies assets held by the Queen as Sovereign and as a private individual.