A newly unveiled portrait of Princes William and Harry of Wales has gone on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Artist Nicky Philips was commissioned in August 2008 to paint the brothers and over a 6-month period the princes would sit for her during hour long sittings either at her studio in South Kensington or in the library at Clarence House. Nicky Philips depicted the princes in an informal pose in the very formal surroundings of Clarence House. Dressed in their Household Calvary officer uniforms the painting is meant to show a casual moment between the brothers before attending a royal event. The artist said she aimed to capture a, "behind the scenes glance at the human element of royal responsibility and to emphasize their brotherly relationship."
Speaking of the experience Nicky Phillips said, "They were very good company and although I was commissioned to paint them in their official context, I hope I have also captured some of the brotherly banter that characterized the sittings.
"They were lovely. Very patient. Very obliging, and I hope they enjoyed it. When they were together they just chatted away between each other when I didn't need them to do something specific."
Describing the first of the 5 sittings the artist explained how the portrait came together. "Harry quickly sat in the room in exactly that pose when I met him, so I thought, 'I'm going to use that'. I wanted Prince William to be slightly higher in the portrait, for obvious reasons. It seems to flow from there. Informality just happened in my studio.
"The library door appeared to be the perfect vehicle for what I was trying to do. The atmosphere came first, followed by the architecture.
"I worked out the pose I wanted for William. He has got lovely high cheekbones there. He gets his cheekbones from his mother – that dent is terribly her. When he first came he was leaning against the pillar in my studio waiting for me to instruct him. I liked that informality, so I went with that. I liked that view of him and from that point onwards I built the rest of it using the poses they had fallen into quite instinctively. And I'm quite glad I had Harry's profile. He has a rather wonderful nose, even though it's broken.
"I wanted to capture just what was there in front of me to be honest. I didn't want any sort of overbearing formality about it because they are still young and William hasn't got to his role yet. They are really Army officers and they are brothers."
Although said she was too busy to listen in on the brothers’ conversations as they sat for her she described the princes as very chatty during the sittings. "When they arrived for the first sitting they entertained themselves. We chatted; sometimes they would banter together. It made such a lovely scene that I picked up on that and let them. They were just two brothers chatting. They did a lot of laughing."
Asked how she felt to have received the commission Nicky Phillips answered, "I was massively lucky to get the commission. I remember getting the call and afterwards sitting there thinking, 'This is so exciting, I can't believe it!' but followed quite quickly by, 'I've got to do it. It's all very well getting it but now I have got to make it work'."
Although Nicky Phillips's portrait is the first to show just the brothers the princes have featured alongside other members of the royal family in two other official paintings. The first was painted by John Wonnacott in 2000 to mark the occasion of the Queen Mother’s 100th birthday. The second was painted in 2007 by Sergei Pavlenko to mark Prince Harry’s commission into the British Army.
The painting can be viewed in the Contemporary Galleries area in the National Portrait Museum.