Royal Collection

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Anthony van Dyck: Charles I with M. de St Antoine (1633)

The Royal Collection is the art collection of the British Royal Family and the largest private art collection in the world.[1][2]

Spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by Queen Elizabeth II[3] and overseen by the Royal Collection Trust, a branch of the Royal Household. The Queen owns some objects in the collection in right of the Crown and some as a private individual.[4] It is made up of over one million objects,[5] including 7,000 paintings, 30,000 watercolours and drawings, and about 500,000 prints,[5][6] as well as photographs, tapestries, furniture, ceramics, cars, textiles, lace, carriages, jewellery, clocks, instruments, plants, manuscripts, books, sculptures, and the Crown Jewels.

Some of the buildings which house the collection, like Hampton Court Palace, are open to the public and not lived in by the Royal Family, whilst others, like Windsor Castle, are both residences and open to the public. The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace in London was built specially 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 loaned on a temporary basis to exhibitions.[5]

History[edit]

Johannes Vermeer: The Music Lesson, c. 1660, was acquired by George III in 1762.[7]

Few items from before King 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. The entire collection was sold after Charles's execution in 1649, and the 'Sale of the Late King's Goods' raised £185,000 for the English Republic.[8] A number of those pieces were recovered by Charles II after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, and they form the basis for the Royal 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, with the assistance of Frederick Augusta Barnard, added 65,000 volumes of books. George IV shared Charles I's enthusiasm for collecting, buying up large quantities of 17th-century Dutch paintings, oriental ceramics, and much of the deposed king Louis XVI's art.[8] Queen Victoria and her husband Albert were keen collectors of contemporary and old master paintings. Works have been given from the collection to museums, especially by George III and Victoria and Albert. In particular, most of the then Royal Library was donated by George III to the British Museum, now the British Library, where many books are still catalogued as "Royal". The core of this collection was the purchase by James I of the related collections of Humphrey Llwyd, Lord Lumley, and the Earl of Arundel.[9]

Throughout the reign of Elizabeth II (1952–present), there have been significant additions to the collection through judicious purchases, bequests and through gifts from nation states and other official bodies.[10] Since 1952, approximately 2,500 works have been added to the Royal Collection.[8] 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.[citation needed] Modern art acquired by Elizabeth II includes pieces by Sir Anish Kapoor and Andy Warhol.[8]

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 also been funded by entrance fees to Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.[11]

Collection[edit]

Andrea Mantegna, Triumph of Caesar: The Vase Bearers, c. 1484–92, acquired by Charles I[12]
Titian: Portrait of Jacopo Sannazaro, 1514–18, part of the Dutch Gift presented to Charles II in 1660[13]
Rubens: Pythagoras Advocating Vegetarianism, c. 1618–30 in the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace

A computerised inventory of the collection was started in early 1991,[14] and it was completed in December 1997.[15] 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.[16]

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.[17] 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 Queen's Gallery, a purpose-built exhibition centre near Buckingham Palace.[18] 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 Windsor Castle, Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, and Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.

Paintings, prints and drawings[edit]

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 whose works can not be fully understood without a study of the holdings contained within the Royal Collection. Numbering over 7,000 works, spread across the Royal Residences, the collection is also arguably amongst the world's oldest in terms of provenance. 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 last 500 years.

Furniture[edit]

Numbering over 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.

Ornaments and décor[edit]

Gems and Jewels[edit]

A collection of 277 cameos, intaglios, badges of insignia, snuffboxes 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–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.[22]

Ownership[edit]

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.[23] Some of the collection is owned by the monarch personally, and everything else is described as being held in trust by the monarch in right of the Crown. All 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,[24] can be added to that part of the collection by a monarch at his or her discretion. Ambiguity surrounds the status of objects that have come into the possession of Queen Elizabeth II.[25] The Royal Collection Trust has confirmed that all pieces left to the Queen by the Queen Mother, which include works by Monet, Nash, and Fabergé, belong to her personally.[26] It has also been confirmed that she owns the Royal stamp collection, inherited from her father George VI, as a private individual.[27]

Non-personal items are said to be inalienable as they can only be willed to the monarch's successor. The legal accuracy of this claim has never been substantiated in court.[28] 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.[25] 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".[29] In a 2000 television interview, the Duke of Edinburgh said that the Queen was "technically, perfectly at liberty to sell them".[18]

Hypothetical questions have been asked in Parliament about what should happen to the collection if the UK ever becomes a republic.[30] 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.[23] Under the European Convention on Human Rights, incorporated into British law in 1998, the monarch would 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.[31]

Management[edit]

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.[32] It employs around 500 staff and is one of the five departments of the Royal Household.[33] Buildings do not come under its remit. In 2012, the team of curatorial staff numbered 29, and there were 32 conservationists.[34] 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.[35]

The conservation studio at Marlborough House is responsible for the in-house conservation of furniture and decorative objects located at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Frogmore House, Palace of Holyroodhouse, St James's Palace, Sandringham House, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace and Osborne House.[36]

Gallery[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Stuart Jeffries (21 November 2002). "Kindness of strangers". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  2. ^ Jerry Brotton (2 April 2006). "The great British art swindle". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 1 December 2016.(subscription required)
  3. ^ "Royal Taxation". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 218. United Kingdom: House of Commons. 11 February 1993. col. 1121.
  4. ^ "Royal Taxation". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 351. United Kingdom: House of Commons. 7 June 2000. col. 273W.
  5. ^ a b c "FAQs about the Royal Collection". Royal Collection Trust. Archived from the original on 4 April 2016.
  6. ^ "Secrets of the Queen's paintings". The Telegraph. 15 February 2015. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  7. ^ "Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman". Royal Collection Trust. Inventory no. 405346.
  8. ^ a b c d Michael Prodger (17 December 2017). "The Royals' Treasures". Culture. The Sunday Times. pp. 44–45.
  9. ^ R. Brinley Jones, ‘Llwyd, Humphrey (1527–1568)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004
  10. ^ Royal Treasures, A Golden Jubilee Celebration. Edited by Jane Roberts. Publisher: Royal Collection Enterprises, St. James' Palace, London, 2002. Page 25 (by Sir Hugh Roberts) and Page 391 (chapter 14). ISBN 1-902163-49-4 (h-b uk) and ISBN 1-902163-52-4 (pb uk)
  11. ^ Michael Hall (2017). Art, Passion & Power: The Story of the Royal Collection. Ebury Publishing. p. 660. ISBN 978-1-4735-3095-9.
  12. ^ "The Triumphs of Caesar: 4. The Vase-Bearers". Royal Collection Trust. Inventory no. 403961.
  13. ^ "Portrait of Jacopo Sannazaro". Royal Collection Trust. Inventory no. 407190.
  14. ^ "Works of Art". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 216. United Kingdom: House of Commons. 11 January 1993. col. 540W.
  15. ^ "Royal Collection". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 315. United Kingdom: House of Commons. 7 July 1998. col. 429W.
  16. ^ Robert Hardman (2011). Our Queen. Random House. p. 102. ISBN 978-1-4070-8808-2.
  17. ^ "Art Collections". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 219. United Kingdom: House of Commons. 19 February 1993. col. 366W.
  18. ^ a b "The convenient fiction of who owns priceless treasure". The Guardian. 30 May 2002. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  19. ^ The Social Affairs Unit – at least Web Review: Dutch Paintings at the Royal Collection
  20. ^ Jones, Jonathan (30 August 2006). "The real Da Vinci code". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  21. ^ Template:Cite V&A Collections
  22. ^ Kirsten Aschengreen Piacenti; John Boardman (2008). Ancient and Modern Gems and Jewels in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen. Royal Collection Trust. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-902163-47-5.
  23. ^ a b Christopher Lloyd (1999). The Paintings in the Royal Collection: A Thematic Exploration. Royal Collection Enterprises. pp. 11–12. ISBN 978-1-902163-59-8. It is, therefore, a private collection, although its sheer size (some 7,000 pictures) and its display in palaces and royal residences (several of which are open to the public) give it a public dimension.
  24. ^ "Force the Royal Family to declare gifts, say MPs". Evening Standard. London. 30 January 2007. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  25. ^ a b Andrew Morton (1989). Theirs Is the Kingdom: The Wealth of the Windsors. Michael O'Mara Books. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-948397-23-3.
  26. ^ David McClure (2015). Royal Legacy. Thistle. pp. 209–210. ISBN 191019865X.
  27. ^ McClure, p. 20.
  28. ^ Jeremy Paxman (2007). On Royalty. Penguin Adult. p. 165. ISBN 978-0-14-101222-3.
  29. ^ "Ethiopian Manuscripts". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 263. United Kingdom: House of Commons. 19 July 1995. col. 1463W.
  30. ^ "Royal Finances". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 388. United Kingdom: House of Commons. 9 July 2002. col. 221WH.
  31. ^ Kevin Cahill (2001). Who owns Britain. Canongate. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-86241-912-7.
  32. ^ Robert Hardman (2011). Our Queen. Random House. p. 43. ISBN 978-1-4070-8808-2.
  33. ^ "Working for us". Royal Collection Trust. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  34. ^ "The Royal Collection: Not only for Queen, but also for country". The Telegraph. 28 May 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  35. ^ "Full accounts made up to 31 March 2015". Companies House. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  36. ^ "Annual report 2006/7" (PDF). Royal Collection Trust. Retrieved 21 March 2016.

Further reading[edit]

  • Hall, Michael (2017). Art, Passion & Power: The Story of the Royal Collection. BBC Books. ISBN 978-1-785-94261-7.
  • Millar, Oliver (1977). The Queen's Pictures. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-77267-5.
  • Plumb, J. H.; Wheldon, Huw (1977). Royal Heritage: The Story of Britain's Royal Builders and Collectors. BBC Books. ISBN 978-0-563-17082-2.
  • Roberts, Jane (2008). Treasures: The Royal Collection. Royal Collection Trust. ISBN 978-1-905-68606-3.

External links[edit]

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