Special Delivery: It's A Prince

Congratulations to Their Royal Highnesses 

The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge 

on the birth of their son 

from Studio Velardi

Special Delivery

The world’s Press have descended on London again to pitch up on very different turf from the sporting spectacle of twelve months ago. In a corner of West London, St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington has been home to international royal correspondents, news anchors and television crews for weeks, all eagerly awaiting the birth of Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s first child. Now days after media speculation the due date would be Saturday 13th July, newsrooms have surrendered to the waiting game, covering royal baby stories of both the absurd and sublime variety. 

#RoyalBaby - It's Monday and a sunny start to the week. Still no sign of The Duchess let alone a baby pic.twitter.com/6pruWgkJ9O
— Dickie Arbiter (@RoyalDickie) July 15, 2013

From commemorative coins, chocolates and even cheese to a twenty-first century must-have: an app - affirming baby Cambridge as the most anticipated birth since the beginning of Twitter. The Royal Baby app, which intends to document various ‘firsts’ by the new addition to the House of Windsor in the coming months for dedicated royal followers who simply cannot wait for ‘commemorative’ publications to hit newsstands day-after-week-after-month. I myself could not resist getting involved in The Great Kate Wait and I had CNN’s Royal Correspondent Max Foster question Mario Testino whether he would be shooting the first official photograph of the royal trio, after spotting him at a charity function at Prince Charles's London residence, Clarence House last week - could Testino be keeping silencioso? 

@JMVELARDI he said he hasn't been asked
— Max Foster (@MaxFosterCNN) July 9, 2013

While the media scrum have created somewhat of an art installation in their own right out of stepladders and duct tape in a kaleidoscope of colours on the sidewalk opposite the hospital, within its very walls one will discover that even the art world is included in the royal baby furore. The sterilised operating spaces of a hospital are after all akin to the clean, white walls of a white cube and in the private maternity unit of the Lindo Wing - specialising in labour, delivery and postnatal care and where Princess Diana gave birth to Princes William and Harry in 1982 and 1984 respectively - the worlds of medicine and contemporary art come together in a unique installation created by British artist, Julian Opie.  

During its eighteenth-month renovation St Mary’s Hospital commissioned Opie to create forty panels of his trademark graphic portraits rendered with minimal detail, using thick, black lines for both the interior and exterior of the Lindo Wing, where the Duchess of Cambridge is due to give birth to the third in line to the throne.

The permanent installation includes works of various sizes depicting tall, elegant women and crawling infants on transparent surfaces, light boxes and glass set against a neutral palette that feature along the walls of the wards, delivery rooms and building's façade. 

In an interview with The Telegraph, the artist talks of his intention to “enliven” patients with art that has a function to excite and the works certainly provide a special and alternative visual stimulus that is so very different from generic colour-conscious interior design, common on the bureaucratic agendas of public institutions. Given the Duchess is Patron of the capital's National Portrait Gallery she will appreciate the art around the unit and there is no doubt Opie will be amused that his work will be the first art seen by the future King or Queen of England. It would be wonderful if Their Royal Highnesses commissioned Opie to produce their newborn’s first official portrait in his contemporary style and save face amongst the art world with the rather disappointing choice of painter selected for the Duchess’s first official portrait unveiled earlier this year (A Portrait Of A Duchess, January 2013).

Paul, baby - 2001

My very best wishes to Their Royal Highnesses on their special delivery and as it so has been welcomed into this world, may their child be raised to reign supportive of arts, culture and creativity.

Visit Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust for more information about the renovation to the Lindo Wing at St Mary’s Hospital. 

Images courtesy of Julian Opie

In Fine Style

For its latest exhibition the Royal Collection explores the sumptuous costume of British monarchs and their court during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace has previously hosted celebrated exhibits such as Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist and Renaissance works from Northern Europe – all of which are in no short supply in what is one of the finest, and oldest, comprehensive art collections in the world.

 

Henry VIII, c. 1530-35 - Joos van Cleve

With over sixty paintings, drawings, garments, armour, jewellery and accessories on display, In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion documents the evolving avant-garde tastes of both royalty and the elite in England and across the Continent.

Speaking with me at a Bloggers’ Breakfast preview, the exhibition’s curator, Anna Reynolds explained the Royal Collection’s new agenda for The Queen’s Gallery as a cultural destination for all interests – akin to its London counterparts such as the Victoria & Albert Museum and Somerset House. Given the collection’s vastness of in-house content and context, traditional and academic themes have tended to be favoured over more popular avenues such as fashion, which incorrectly assumes superfluous and solely superficial status in comparison. What has been the culmination of three years of research In Fine Style is by no means art-lite. The exhibition is a first for the Royal Collection on several counts: it is the first time it has looked at fashion in portraiture; the first time objects have been loaned to the collection, breaking with longstanding curatorial mandate, and the very first time a playlist has been commissioned to accompany the exhibit. Anna proudly describes the collaborative, and eclectic, direction she has successfully achieved – working with The Blackborne Lace Collection at The Bowes Museum to XFM DJ and musician Eddy Temple-Morris and international fashion designer Gareth Pugh – to create a multi-sensory experience of fashion as spectacle as well as its depiction through art, bridging the historic with the contemporary.

As the first monarch to embrace fashion in court, Henry VIII welcomes visitors into the space by way of his potent portrait by Joos van Cleeve. Power was woven into the construct of fashion and there is no better royal than the second monarch from the Tudor dynasty to set the tone of the exhibition in all its rich, allegorical splendour. The meeting between Henry VIII and Francis I of France in 1520 in Balinghem, near Calais, was a dazzling installation by both royal courts to outshine one another using unimaginable quantities of elaborate gold cloth - woven with silk and gold thread - for costumes and the erection of temporary palaces. The monarchs had enforced so much attention to flamboyancy and presentation that the meeting place took the name, Field of the Cloth of Gold, due to is impressive execution and scale, to which this portrait is suggested to commemorate.

 

Young Royals power dressing: 

Princess Elizabeth I & Prince Edward VI - attributed to William Scrots

This is a fine example of the roles fashion and taste played in communicating wealth and status – important aspects of Tudor life that can be traced down to Princess Elizabeth I and Prince Edward VI, painted by William Scrots, who flank their Father and join members of the Tudor court illustrated by Hans Holbein the Younger. Entry to the royal inner circle, which directly granted political and professional upward mobility, had been largely driven by personal appearance and the cut, cloth, colour and composition of garments and accessories became sartorial symbols of success for both sexes.

William Parr, c.1538-42 - Hans Holbein the Younger

Majestic monochrome: Henry Stewart & Charles Stewart, 1563 - Hans Esworth

In the knowledge that the exhibition has fashion in its title, it certainly triggers one’s attention to the cuffs, ruffs, pattern, pleating, jewels, hats and hairstyles that command equal weight with the historical significance of the canvas within this specific context like never before. In Fine Style questions the extent of the artists’ execution of representing fashion as the genuine article or an interpretation for canvas as not to detract from the subject. This idea of painting as a reliable source is raised in works by Sir Peter Lely who controlled his aesthetic by adapting the sitters’ attire. One of the exhibition’s highlights is a lace cloak band, or collar, reputed to have belonged to Charles I on loan from The Blackborne Lace Collection. The finely embroidered needle lace of linen thread is an exquisite example of technique as well as preservation of its rarity. Its allure is greatly magnified as it stands aside Sir Anthony van Dyck’s enduring triple portrait of the monarch, with only the glass display case separating its contents from canvas with an almost identical representation in form and design of the cloak band, depicted to be worn by the monarch in his profile to the right.

Charles I, before June 1636 - Sir Anthony van Dyck

A pair of late-seventeenth century embroidered velvet mules are looked on by their owner Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, in a nearby painting also by van Dyck. The dainty heeled shoes that were invented in France to project one’s social standing find themselves in an installation of extremes between the feminine and androgynous as can be seen in the portraits of cover girl for the exhibition, Frances Stuart, in dress and soldier costume – painted by Lely and Jacob Huysmans respectively. Simon Verelst’s portrait of Mary of Modena in a masculine-inspired riding habit also plays with notions of androgyny, the practicality of feminine attire and in this instance, a symbol of her marriage to the Duke of York who wore a similar coat design at their wedding in 1673.

 

Mary of Modena, c1675 - Simon Verelst

The low hanging installation of paintings is a triumph of intimacy between viewer and canvas. Fashion enthusiasts will no doubt be in their element when confronted with the intricate patterns of stitching or formation of pearls in oil paint and the minute brush strokes that form the illusion of crisp white ruffs that alone would have cost the equivalent of between £10,000 and £20,000 in today’s money.

The detail however can admittedly be overwhelming – even after five centuries, this is a testament to precisely what the royal court intended to achieve in its day. In addition to a video interview (above) with fashion designer Gareth Pugh who points to Elizabeth I as inspiration for many of his collections in his East London studio, the free multimedia guide also provides an excellent escape from up-close examination with a twelve-track playlist curated by XFM DJ Eddie Temple-Morris. 

In response to a selection of paintings that are featured in the exhibition, music by contemporary artists have been chosen to complement the works of art and introduce a unique visitor experience walking within the gilded setting that is The Queen’s Gallery. 

 

Charles II, 1644 - William Dobson

Some song titles easily link track to image – William Dobson’s painting of Charles II in armour is paired with Reso’s War Machine and van Dyck’s triple portrait of Charles I with Angles by dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip. More abstract selections come in the form of Lana del Ray’s Blue Jeans hit remixed by Maribou State that reflects the ethereal score with the ethereal beauty of Frances Stuart. 

 

Frances Stuart, before 1662 - Sir Peter Lely

I particularly enjoyed Temple-Morris's choice of Dubstep in Nero's Innocence selected for the magnificent portrait of Charles I’s three eldest children by van Dyck. In 1635 the young Prince Charles  had come of age and therefore wears a golden doublet and breeches to display his loss of innocence, in contrast to the tradition of young boys, as depicted by his younger brother (centre) who wears a skirt. The 2010 release crescendos to a sense of foreboding that not only echoes the young Prince’s imminent future as King, but the state of the country during the English Civil War and subsequent execution of these children’s Father in 1649.

The Three Eldest children of Charles I, 1635-36 - Sir Anthony van Dyck

Armour’s design and styling on the battlefield directly copied fashionable tastes of the time, often with detail found on expensive fabric being replicated in metal through engraving and with additions to produce a highly decorative surface in silver and gilt. An extraordinary display links a miniature of Henry, Prince of Wales by Nicholas Hilliard at the age of thirteen wearing a suit of armour dating from early-seventeenth century France. 

Henry Prince of Wales, 1607 - Nicholas Hilliard

The same armour, or Cuirassier, that Hilliard illustrates can be found adjacent in all its intricate beauty and attention to detail that strikes an image of pure physical strength of the young prince.

 

Cuirassier armour, c. 1607 - French

In the final room of the exhibition, Continental tastes are explored as closer relationships are formed between the European courts. On the Continent, fashionable styles were closely linked to political power – Spain’s strong influence coincided with its political dominance across much of Europe in the sixteenth century that was later to be succeeded by France’s supremacy in both politics and fashion under the rule of Louis XIV from the court of Versailles. The English were viewed as chameleons, adopting different elements of costume from Europe as a result of greater circulation of prints and portraiture. It was not until Charles II's reign that a notion of Englishness, portrayed directly through fashion, developed in the eyes of Europe: introducing the precursor of the men’s three-piece suit and abandoning a short doublet and cloak for a long vest and coat – a trend the diarist Samuel Pepys could not resist to replicate. On display are portraits that demonstrate the links and distinctions across Europe that include mirror images of Prince Rudolf and his brother, Archduke Ernest of Austria wearing replica fashions painted by Spanish court artist, Alonso Sánchez Coello and the subtly divine costume of Agatha Bas by Rembrandt van Rijn.

 Rudolf II, Emperor of Austria, 1567 - Alonso Sánchez Coello

 Agatha Bas, 1641 - Rembrandt van Rijn

Fashion is one of very few facets in history that is able to communicate without words by means of a visual and tactile language. When discussing royal fashion, it is impossible not to mention the phenomena of style that has accumulated throughout the centuries to the present House of Windsor who receive fanatical dissection from head to toe. While technology may have opened up the once-exclusive royal wardrobe of material and styles, personal expression through fashion is just as powerful today as it was in Tudor England. From Victorian romanticism to a dapper Duke of Windsor; a colour-conscious Queen Elizabeth II followed by a furlong of hats and fascinators in her reign, to the most recent obsession with the fashionably accessible Duchess of Cambridge. In Fine Style presents an impressive formula for future curation:  in an age when modern monarchy is seen and not heard, it will be their costumes that historians will look to for invaluable messages of evolving identity to expose the social and cultural influences of epochs past, present and future.

In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion is on exhibit at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace until 6th October 2013.  For further details about events, educational programmes and ticket information visit the Royal Collection's official website.   

 

In conjunction with the exhibition, an interactive app has been inspired by a curious portrait miniature of Henrietta Maria that includes hand-painted overlays where she may be dressed in a variety of male and female costume. The free app allows enthusiasts to dress the rich and the powerful from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as well as take self-photos and transform into fashionable royalty of the day - available to download from iTunes.

Images courtesy of the Royal Collection © Queen Elizabeth II

Toile De Pomp & Pop Culture

The walls of Kensington Palace may have a wealth of stories to tell of its royal occupants since the seventeenth century; William III, the young Queen Victoria and Princess Margaret, however it is unquestionably recognized for its symbolic role adopted by the public as a place of tribute after the tragic death of Diana, The Princess of Wales in 1997. The sea of flowers and sentiments outside the late Princess’s home are some of the most iconic images of the twentieth century and has since shaped public behaviour towards celebrity and Monarchy alike.

Tomorrow the doors of Kensington Palace will reopen after a year-long twelve million pound restoration project in time for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and Olympic Games, launching with the exhibition, Diana: Glimpses Of A Modern Princess. Installed in Apartment 1A where the late Princess resided, and scheduled to be the future home of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge next year, the exhibition will reflect some of the most important and memorable moments in Diana’s public life and will focus on her iconic fashion and style. If the Grace Kelly: Image Of A Movie Star at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London or The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty is anything to go by, fashion sells both on the streets as well as in the galleries and will undoubtedly be a sell out show for Historical Royal Palaces who run the royal residence in West London.

Dresses aside, the curators of the exhibition were intent to avoid a formal institutional display, perhaps conscious of the creative expectations that such showstoppers now command, and have commissioned contemporary illustrator Julie Verhoeven to produce a modern toile based on moments throughout the Princess’s life, incorporated into a wallpaper repeat pattern in a graphic collage in watercolour.

Diana with newborn Prince William

Drawing from photographs of Diana’s engagement announcement to Prince Charles, subsequent wedding, royal tours around the world and the last portraits to be shot by Mario Testino as well as architectural elements that resemble that of the palace or from Althorp, the resting place of the Princess at her ancestral home, Verhoeven employs her trademark technique to introduce a contemporary atmosphere within a loaded historical setting of both pomp and pop culture. While if a little naïve and childlike given the context of a woman in her prime, the style is resolutely Nineties, similar to the bright kitsch children’s wallpaper that I remember from the decade that was to be Diana’s last.

Diana shot by Mario Testino

Printed by hand in England by interiors firm and royal warrant holders Cole and Son who produce traditional period designs, the wallpaper will be installed throughout the exhibition in the palace’s State Rooms and will reflect the lasting influence in style and history of the Mother of the future King of England: whether this is the grande finale of a commercial chapter past in order to allow for chapters anew to evolve in the highs and lows of the dynasty of the Windsors is still to be seen. For now, memories of the past fuel what is a record period of public popularity and a right royal renaissance in the year where the matriarch of the British Monarchy celebrates sixty years on the throne.

Diana: Glimpses Of A Modern Princess

26th April - 31st August 2012

Kensington Palace

Kensington Gardens

London W8 4PX

Brand AD

I am very fortunate to call Windsor my home – twenty one miles from central London, the historic town in Royal Berkshire is famed by its castle and its royal residents throughout the centuries, of which the current Royal House adopted its namesake during a First World War rebrand – unsurprisingly Saxe-Coburg-Gotha didn't quite have the right ring to it. The town is pseudo-country; formed around the private and public crown estate of Windsor Great Park, one can instantly be lost in an ocean of forest or fields when exploring off the tourist ant-trail, only to discover there is much more history beyond the castle walls. Down the Long Walk - arguably the most impressive approach to a residence in the Land - and beyond the Copper Horse, lays a community of duty and heritage. While accessible only by foot or by bicycle to the public, The Great Park is my home turf and my runs around this five thousand acre estate over the years have still not taken me to its every corner. A few weekends ago I stepped back in time – the twelfth century to be precise – to visit the exhibition A Pageant of Heraldry organised by The College of Arms and Cumberland Lodge.

Cumberland Lodge is a residence within The Great Park dating from the middle of the seventeenth century. Since its formation as a charitable foundation in 1947, it provides an informal centre for academic exchange – it’s panelled rooms proved one of the most interesting exhibiting pop-up spaces I had been to for a while. 

During my time with the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle a few years ago, I could not resist growing a fascination with heraldry. Besides the fact that there is symbolism carved onto every chair, table, pane of glass and slab of stone around the castle apartments, as an artist the visual language that these symbols created were truly mystifying and formed one of the first concepts of a brand through visual recognition in history. Whether it is the sea of shields across the ceiling of St George’s Hall or the sacred decoration that is at the heart of the foundations of St George’s Chapel, it is easy to be enchanted by the genealogical history of characters past and present.

Heraldry derives from the word Herald and was first mentioned in Western Europe about the time of the First Crusade (c. 1100). Acting as messengers, diplomats and army staff officers, Heralds were attached to household rulers and magnates around the country where they used their expertise in identifying army commanders by their coat armour - markings painted on their banners and shields – since helmets denied facial recognition during war. This was a valued skill and precise identification in battle was paramount. Their experience led to taking responsibility of ceremonial duties at court and they were acknowledged as members of the Royal Household under Henry V in 1415 as ‘King of Arms’. 

Their device of indexes, rules and terminology around the insignia of arms form the basis of heraldic law and language that continues to provide a service today by the office of the Earl Marshal – itself a hereditary position through the Dukes of Norfolk since 1672 - who represent the Sovereign in the authorisation of all arms and grants. 

The exhibition illustrates the importance of heraldry as a mark of identification and charts the importance of heraldic seals as a means of authenticating documents in the late Middle Ages to the interest of institutions and public bodies from the beginning of the eighteenth century of which interest maintains in contemporary society and continues to be presented with an ornate Grant of Arms document approved with a Great Seal.

Tabard of King of Arms, bearing the Royal Arms on velvet

Tabard of Pursuivant of Arms, bearing the Royal Arms on silk

Highlights from the exhibit include tabards of King of Arms and Pursuivants of Arms beautifully embroidered on velvet and silk respectively, as well as The late Queen Mother’s personal banner which is uniquely on display.

While it is assumed that coats of arms are only reserved for royalty and nobility, with the emergence of a celebrity class towards the end of the last century within Britain’s inherent class system, a slice of noble decoration can in fact be purchased by anyone, at a price. With the trend ignited by rock royalty such as Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney, celebrity culture in Britain aspired for heraldic heritage – this was notably documented in the press when David Beckham and then-to-be wife, Victoria Adams commissioned a coat of arms inspired by the British Premier League Football trophy in 1999. Reports came out that the couple wished for the swan - that is incorporated in the design - to face a specific direction and that it had been suggested the swan should face the opposite direction since the great heraldic lexicon dictated the original direction would have implied the male bearer’s sexual preference to men. Most recently however, the coat of arms of a certain Kate Middleton received global attention on the announcement of her engagement to Prince William. Royal protocol requires both parties of the royal couple to provide arms – the Middleton family commissioned a coat of arms with the help of Garter Principal King of Arms, Thomas Woodcock, resulting in a personal design that symbolised the family’s association with West Berkshire and their interest in outdoor pursuits, while representing all five members of the Middleton family through colour and composition.

Printed onto the official souvenir programme on the day of the Royal Wedding earlier this year (Something Old Something New, April 2011) it is undoubtedly the most recognisable coat of arms in 2011, if not this century. However once Kate Middleton officially married into the Royal family to assume her title of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, her coat of arms instantly ‘combined’ with that of Prince William. Where protocol necessitates this new design will be used to represent the Duchess and also gives the opportunity to watering holes around the country to fashion themselves after the newly appointed royal – the first pub in the country to be named after the Duchess was in fact registered in Windsor where the coat of arms can be seen above the entrance.

The importance of heritage in contemporary society is no more evident than in the new advertising campaign that was launched by British Airways in late September. While companies invest millions into rebranding their product with a new direction, the airline looked to their past and reintroduced a brand element from their 'Landor' livery that was used between 1984-1997. Perhaps a clever marketing strategy on the eve of the British Monarch’s Golden Jubilee as well as the hosting nation of the Olympic Games next year, the airline has chosen to reintroduce a newly stylised version of their coat of arms and motto, To Fly. To Serve - granted to them by the College of Arms in 1975 - on their aircraft, uniforms and all other aspects of brand BA. Profiting from the ‘made in Britain’ trend that is proving to be a currency worth investing in across all market sectors, the expression of genuine heritage is an element of branding money cannot buy. The majestic nature of a coat of arms supersedes any fancy, modernist design, embodying a sense of seniority, quality and even timelessness that will no doubt charm customers aboard the nation’s flag carrier.

A series of crests - including a chrysanthemum of the Emperor of Japan (centre) 

While contemporary events of public interest shine the media spotlight onto the heritage of the College of Arms today, it is the annual event of the Most Noble Order of the Garter within the walls of Windsor Castle at St George’s Chapel - heraldry’s spiritual home since the Order’s foundation in 1348 by Edward III – that emphasises the historical importance and splendour of a service that is so intrinsic in this country’s very own brand identity that will last for another eight hundred years.

A Pageant of Heraldry may still be viewed at Cumberland Lodge on Wednesday 26th November – click here for visitor information. For further details on heraldic history and lineage, enquiries may be made to the Officer in Waiting at the Collage of Arms, which is open on weekdays throughout the year. Access to St George’s Hall and St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle is open daily – the wardens are well versed in the castle’s history and are more than happy to help with any questions – ticket information can be obtained at The Royal Collection.  

The College of Arms
Queen Victoria Street
London EC4

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Cumberland Lodge
The Great Park
Windsor, Berkshire
SL4 2HP