THE NOT-SO-MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR

Shortly after her marriage to the Duke of York, the future Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother sat for this portrait (above left) by the Russian portraitist Savely Sorine (1887-1953). Drawn in pencil with a watercolour wash added afterwards, the Duchess is depicted in a white dress with a white background. The only warmth comes from the delicate flesh tints in her face, neck and hands.

According to the Queen Mother’s official biographer William Shawcross, the sitting for the portrait occurred on 4 August 1923, Elizabeth’s 23rd birthday. Her husband was away playing polo and the day was a poignant one: her close male friend, Prince Paul of Serbia, announced his engagement to Princess Olga of Greece that morning, while James Stuart, whom she had dated before the prince, married Lady Rachel Cavendish the same day.

Perhaps it signified the end of the fun days of her youth for the Duchess. She noted in her journal that she found sitting for the portrait boring and that she had felt depressed. As Shawcross notes, ‘A sense of sadness does seem to infuse the portrait.’

Twenty- five years later, in 1948, she commissioned Sorine to paint a companion piece of her daughter Elizabeth, who was also newly married and who was already pregnant with her first child. Sorine once again created a simple whiteon- white composition, and once again he eschewed the trappings of royalty to show a thoughtful young woman against the simplest of backdrops. The princess was living at Clarence House at the time and today it remains in place in what is now Prince Charles’s official residence.