Tomorrow will see the return of a commissioned portrait by Queen Elizabeth II, which caused a lot of controversy back in 1988.
In his painting, British artist Norman Hutchinson depicted the monarch in the solemn outfit she wore to meet the Pope in 1988. The artwork was savaged by critics when it was first unveiled because people thought the Queen looked ‘dour’.
Mansion House in Doncaster had it commissioned, but they finally sent it back after Hutchison got into a dispute with the council. He kept it there for 10 years.
Former dancer Caroline Brown, 72, who was a friend of Hutchinson, bought it off him in 2000, but is now selling it for £8,000, alongside 13 other works by the painter, including a nude portrait of her called Ageing Dancer.
A portrait of the Queen, pictured, by British painter Norman Hutchinson, which was savaged when it was unveiled in 1988 for making the Monarch look too ‘stern’ will go on sale for £8,000 tomorrow
Three-quarters of an inch in length, the artwork made the monarch appear as depressed as Queen Victoria. It was featured on the front pages of many newspapers, including The Daily Mail.
Hutchinson, who also painted Prince Philip and the Queen Mother, reportedly fell out with the portrait’s commissioner, Mansion House in Doncaster, over the finished piece.
He held onto it for over ten years before Caroline Brown, a former dancer, purchased it for an undisclosed price in 2000.
She hung the painting in her Bath townhouse for over 20 years, but is selling it now because she recently moved to London.
Mansion House, Doncaster, ordered the portrait of Queen Elizabeth. However, it ended up in storage when the artist and Doncaster council disagreed over the painting.
Ms Brown, 74, said Hutchinson was upset with the hostility shown towards the painting as he had sought to convey the Queen’s ‘strength’.
The tempera on canvas 5.5ft by 5ft painting is tipped to fetch £8,000 with auctioneers Woolley & Wallis, of Salisbury, Wilts.
Ms Brown, who posed for Hutchinson for his painting Aging Dancer, said: ‘It was said that Norman had made the Queen look severe but he said that during the sittings he was struck that she was a strong lady, and that’s what he wanted to get over.
“Norman” broke up with Mansion House who had ordered the portrait and stored it for 10 years.
“One day I asked him about it, and I suggested that he sell it to me through my Hong Kong contacts. She had previously lived in Hong Kong with her then-husband.
It was claimed that the portrait made Queen Victoria look as “dor” as her mother Queen Victoria when it was first unveiled. Pictured: Monarch smiling at guests at Windsor Castle in October 2021
“When I inquired about the price, he said that he would pay me $1000. Since then it’s been on my stairs.
Hutchinson was the unlegitimate child of Eric Douglas, a Scottish nobleman, and Florence, a 15-year old Anglo-Indian servant, and was born in Calcutta in India in 1932.
In June 2010, he died at the age of 78 in Marrakech, Morocco.
Brown is now selling her collection of 13 Hutchinson paintings, including her own portrait, and the portrait of the Queen, with Wooley and Wallis in Salisbury.
Tomorrow, the portrait and 12 other Hutchinson works will go on sale together with his friend Caroline Brown.
Victor Fauvelle, head of paintings at Woolley & Wallis, said: ‘Ironically it may have been Hutchinson’s lowly upbringing which cemented his future with the Royals.
“Lady Mountbatten was the patronage of the orphanage in which he was raised, and she asked him to paint her at 18 years old.
Prince Philip was her nephew, and he was the one who was the first person to take Hutchinson’s portrait.
‘But, of course, it was the portrait of Queen Elizabeth herself that cemented the artist’s reputation.
The portrait, which was quite contentious at the time it was painted, was called “the stern queen” by the press and was often compared to portraits of Queen Victoria.
‘It’s a painting with a real presence and shows a different side to our monarch than many of the other portraits of her.’