King Charles Loans His First Piece of Art as Monarch

The first painting to be displayed with the label "Lent by His Majesty The King" is Lucian Freud's portrait of Queen Elizabeth. It is currently on display in the National Gallery’s exhibition Lucian Freud: New Perspectives, and was installed at the end of the mourning period for Queen Elizabeth.

Titled "Her Majesty the Queen," Freud painted the late monarch in 2000 and 2001, and gifted the art to her. It was part of Queen Elizabeth's private collection. Per the Art Newspaper, "It is unclear whether her will (which as monarch is to be sealed for 90 years) specifies that ownership of the Freud should pass to the collection or go to her son."

The painting was announced to feature in the exhibit back in 2021, so this was likely not a decision Charles himself made. "It is a fascinating portrait and it comes from a painter who always had an interest in looking at the powerful just as much as he looked at everyday life. He painted Her Majesty the Queen; he also painted portraits of bookies and rogues. He painted portraits of his own mother," curator Daniel F Herrmann said last year when the show was announced.

"No portrait of The Queen has divided opinion quite as strongly as this small, expressive oil painting," the Royal Collection Trust description reads. "Richard Cork, art critic for The Times, called it 'painful, brave, honest, stoical and, above all, clear sighted,' Contrastingly, The Sun’s Royal Photographer, Arthur Edwards, declared: 'Freud should be locked in the Tower for this.'"

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