CHRISTIAN FURR ‘THE QUEEN WAS SO FUNNY’
Not many people can say they’ve sat with the Queen, let alone hold the title of being the youngest portrait artist to ever paint her.
Christian, now 56, says, “I got the initial call in 1994. And they said to me, ‘Are you sitting down?’ The Queen would like you to paint her portrait.’” The artist, who was just 28 at the time, explains that the Queen had requested him after admiring one of his previous works. “There was something about that portrait that triggered her kind of interest,” says Christian. “The first sitting happened in March 1995. So I had a lot of time to be very nervous!”
Nerves aside, Christian said he approached the project in the way that he approached all his other work – with lots of research. And one thing that stuck with him is that previous artists hadn’t quite captured the essence of her “personality”. He explains, “It felt like they were a bit scared to go closer to the Queen and I knew I didn’t want to do that. So I had something to react against. I composed the painting accordingly, and when I look at it now, it reflects the opulence of the time. It changed the course of my life, which I’ll always be grateful for.”
In terms of what the Queen was like in the sittings, Christian says, “I remember I was in a sitting once, and I was concentrating on something and thinking, ‘I’ve got to get this right.’ And the Queen was bopping around listening to some music outside that she clearly enjoyed. And I said, ‘Oh, do you mind keeping your head still?’ She sort of looked at me and she said, ‘Isn’t it still already?’ But she was so funny, she had a brilliant sense of humour.
“There was lots of conversation. It was very much a relaxed time. There’s definitely that element of magic when you’re there.”
‘She was bopping around listening to some music’