Yahoo Sports Royal brothers painting won’t be on show when National Portrait Gallery reopens
The National Portrait Gallery will not be showing a painting depicting the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex when it reopens.
The London gallery is set to reopen this month, following a three-year closure and a £35 million refurbishment.
It has been revealed that the 2010 portrait of the Royal brothers by Nicky Philipps will no longer be on display.
The painting, commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery in early 2008, depicts the two princes wearing the dress uniform of the Blues and Royals, and was set in the artist’s home in South Kensington.
Sandy Nairne, the director of the gallery, said at the time: “The first portrait of the princes captures them formally dressed, but informally posed.
“It is a delightful image, which extends the tradition of royal portraiture.”
Decision of gallery
The decision is understood to have not been made at the request of the Palace, both the gallery and Kensington Palace have told The Times.
A gallery spokesman said: “Decisions relating to the portraits on display at the National Portrait Gallery are made by the gallery’s curatorial team.
“With over 250,000 portraits in our collection, we are only able to display a small percentage within our building. However, as one of the world’s largest and most important collections of portraits, we regularly lend and tour our works, both nationally and internationally.
“This portrait by Nicky Philipps was included in a touring exhibition, Tudors to Windsors, which travelled between 2018 and 2021. The portrait was last displayed at the gallery between March and August 2018.”
Happier times
The painting shows the brothers looking at one another and smiling subtly, reflective of a time when they were close.
The original plan was for Ms Philipps to paint the princes at Clarence House, but the lighting was more suitable at her home, so she invited the brothers there.
The painting was unveiled a decade before the Duke of Sussex decided to step down as a working member of the Royal family and relocate to California with his wife, Meghan.
Reflecting on the experience last year for ITV’s Keeping Up With The Aristocrats, the artist said: “I painted them for the National Portrait Gallery. They were so sweet. They were so close. Those were the days.”
Deep rift
A deep rift has divided the two brothers since the revelations that the Duke included in his bombshell memoir, Spare, published at the beginning of the year.
Before the Coronation, sources on both sides indicated that the relationship between the Duke of Sussex and the Prince of Wales was at rock bottom, and that they had not spoken for months.
It is understood that the gallery will use the added room afforded by its multi-million-pound revamp to “diversify” its displays, using the new spaces to show more contemporary works depicting or created by people from minority backgrounds.
