I had tea at Buckingham Palace this week, or rather a £5 scone (at least it was nice! but the tea was in a paper cup) overlooking the palace gardens at the end of the state rooms tour. Which was excellent and I've meaning to do it for years.
The picture gallery was rather too crowded for comfort - and to be fair, HM is a generous lender so I'd seen many works before - but this state portrait caught my eye in the ambassadors' corridor near the entrance, tucked away as if nobody much loves it. I loved the treatment of the Coronation gown but didn't think it a very good likeness of the Queen.
And then the penny dropped. The artist was Sir James Gunn (for more of his paintings see last week's Persephone Post).
And if the Queen looked familiar but not quite herself ... well, doesn't she remind you of his very glamorous wife Pauline? I wonder what Pauline thought!
3 comments:
Think might have been £5.95, Sue- being a northerner, it nearly choked me!
Jeepers, that would be close to $8.00 US for a scone -- I hope that it was tasty!
The pictures are gorgeous, and the dresses are even mmore so. The early portraits of HM the Queen are so much nicer than current versions. When you see such beautiful attire, and admire the craftsmanship of the seamstresses, one has to wonder why ca't we have dresses like those anymore instead of half naked celebrities poncing around in gauze and a few strategically placed patches? I am no prude but one wonders why there isn't more groping and harassment. I'll have to say, though, that seeing a man (particularly one over about 22) in a Speedo certainly doesn't drive me to make a grab for his very skimpily covered private parts! In fact, I would make haste to move in a different direction! I don't remember who commented about it (David Niven?) but men in dress attire, or white/black tie are so much more attractive and alluring!
Ginny Jones
Ginny, my grandad used to say that men ceased to look smart after spats went out of fashion.
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