Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ELIZABETH ART?17
Sketches ‘by young Queen’ look set to fetch thousands Quiet, tender and quite irresistible
TWO sketches believed to be made by the Queen when she was a child are set to sell for thousands.
Critics say the works display a “precocious talent” and experts value them at a minimum of £3,000.
Buckingham Palace last night refused to confirm whether the art was genuine.
One pencil sketch shows a middleaged women in profile while the other seems to be of the same person knitting.
The woman is believed to be Marion Crawford, tutor to the future Queen and her sister Princess Margaret.
Drawn on royal-headed paper, they were found inside a book called The Scottish National War Memorial.
The inside page is signed “Elizabeth” in blue ink.
Art critic Philip Mould said: “If these are by the Queen they show a precocious talent that,
I LIKE these drawings quite a bit. There’s a tender quietness to both of them – a sense of someone looking at someone they admire very closely and trying to understand them and do them justice.
The defined structure of the subject’s torso suggests an artist who is developing had she not become sovereign, could have taken her in artistic directions. “The only person likely to establish authenticity for certain, however, is the artist herself.”
Although the date 1932 is stamped on the book, the Queen would have been just six at the time and experts suggest the drawings could date from later. A private collector sent them to auctioneers William George of Peterborough, Cambs. The firm’s Alex Mccormick said: “It is most likely they were drawn by a member of the royal family close to Elizabeth, or perhaps even by the future Queen herself.”
Scot Marion “Crawfie” Crawford began her royal job in 1932 and fell from favour after releasing a book The Little Princesses. She died in 1988. The sale ends on March 4. a measure of confidence as do the smart bits of shading defining her clothes.
The most irresistible detail, for me, is the glorious nose in the profile portrait. What a great nostril. The artist has captured it very succinctly. Is it worth the price? You can spend a great deal more on drawings by less famous people – if this is the Queen’s work.