LONDON.- Philip Mould & Company announced the acquisition by Chester’s Grosvenor Museum of an outstanding portrait of Charles, Prince of Wales. This emotive work, painted by Tom Wood in 1989, is especially intimate when compared to more formal Royal Commissions and is a wonderful addition to the museum’s expanding collection.

Offered for sale directly to The Grosvenor Museum by Philip Mould & Company at a reduced price, the Museum Board have achieved their fundraising target with the generous assistance of the Art Fund, the Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, the Tyrer Charitable Trust, the Gerrard and Audrey Couch Charitable Trust, and the Grosvenor Museum Society. The portrait now joins an eclectic collection of works that simultaneously reveal the rich history of Western pictorial art from the early-sixteenth century to the present day, whilst also retaining a close connection to the City of Chester itself.

Chester has enjoyed a special relationship with the Crown for more than seven centuries, the title Earl of Chester having been granted to the heir apparent to the English throne since 1301. Thus, Prince Charles was created Earl of Chester and Prince of Wales in 1958 and was invested by The Queen with the insignia of his principality and the earldom of Chester at Caernarfon Castle in 1969.

Background
The portrait, which was exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London for twelve years, can be considered one of the most successful royal portrait commissions of the twentieth century. It was highly praised by Sir Roy Strong, former Director of the National Portrait Gallery, who, after seeing this portrait in 1989, said ‘I think it is the best portrait I’ve ever seen of him’.

Prince Charles first met the artist Tom Wood whilst visiting an exhibition of his work at the Dean Clough Art Gallery in Halifax in 1987, and shortly after requested a sitting with the artist. Two very different portraits were produced from the subsequent sittings; the first remains in the ownership of the Prince and the other, the present work, was produced simultaneously with his permission. This portrait is much larger and more ambitious than the other version, with a greater emphasis on symbolic subject matter.

The first sitting took place in October 1988 at the Prince’s country house, Highgrove in Gloucestershire, and after much discussion it was agreed that the portrait should be informal and show the private Prince, rather than in an official role. During the second visit to Highgrove in 1988, the Prince showed Tom Wood around the Walled Garden, sitting and posing for him under a pergola. This sowed a seed in the artist’s mind for the setting and arrangement of this portrait.

The 40-year-old prince, wearing a suit, is shown in his garden, immersed in nature and looking directly at the viewer. His lips are slightly parted, as if he is in conversation and is listening carefully to what is being said. The encounter is intimate, rather than formal and his expression is attentive, empathetic and concerned. The silhouette of a classical building, topped with urns and reminiscent of Highgrove, vaguely suggests a crown, and on either side of the Prince are two brooding ghost-like presences, each looking away. They are suggestive of the Prince at different ages, and are also Janus-like, looking into the past and the future. The enigmatic figures may be a reference to Sir Anthony Van Dyck’s triple-portrait of the Prince’s namesake, Charles I, which hangs in the Royal Collection. The side of the plinth is decorated with an antique relief of a lion’s head, and as with all of Wood’s symbols, it is open to interpretation. Perhaps here, it is an image of strength, of royalty and of England.