This portrait was unveiled by HRH the Prince of Wales in November 2018 at an event to honour his 70th birthday at Australia House, London. Set in Dumfries House, a Robert Adam estate owned by the Prince’s Trust Charity, the portrait references the Prince’s lifelong commitment to environmental protection, cultural preservation and notions of harmony between the natural world and the built environment, expressed in his own personal writings. Dumfries House is the ideal setting to express these ideas, not only in being an example of an architectural heritage site that the Prince undertook to restore, but also in the way that it engages the local community and functions to put many of the Prince’s charitable causes into practice.
The portrait shows HRH standing by a window in the tapestry room, through which a large oak tree, a national symbol of wisdom and endurance, is seen. The expansive tree is reflected in the lid of a grand piano inside – bringing nature ‘into the room’ and referencing HRH’s advocacy for the integration of nature, architecture and art.
