Of all the passions of Prince Charles, heir to the British Crown, watercolor is one of the oldest. He is currently exhibiting 79 of them in London, in the delicate setting of a renovated 19th century chapel.
It is the most important exhibition of his works to date. For nearly fifty years, the prince has painted in the open air the places he loves, Scotland, the royal residences … His travels are also a source of inspiration, from Switzerland to Tanzania via Provence. and Greece.
It was he who personally chose the watercolors for the exhibition, presented by location and country, until February 14.
We travel from the snow-capped Scottish mountains to Wales, from the Dentelles de Montmirail in Provence to Mount Athos in Greece, and as far as Transylvania (Romania). The prince’s brushes have also immortalized Klosters and St-Moritz (GR), or the castle of Barroux in the south of France.
The 73-year-old prince enjoys the mountains, the rivers, the sea, with a special affection for a Scottish mountain, the Beinn a’Bhuird, painted numerous times at different times of the year from changing angles .
Relaxing and therapeutic
He chose watercolor because he found “the photo unsatisfactory”, he explains in a text exhibited with his works at the Garrison Chapel, in the district of Belgravia.
“It requires the most intense concentration and therefore it is one of the most relaxing and therapeutic exercises that I have known,” he adds. “It transports me to another dimension, which refreshes parts of the soul, which other activities cannot reach.”
Despite the delicacy of some of his watercolors, he says he has “no illusions” about their quality. “But they represent my particular form of photographic album, and as such, are very important to me”.
Over the years he found time to paint 680 watercolors, sometimes signed AG Carrick, a pseudonym created from the initials of two of his other first names Arthur and George, and his title of Earl of Carrick.
Lineage of artists
Prince Charles comes from a “line of artists,” says Rosie Alderton, curator of the exhibition, recalling paintings by her father, Prince Philip, and also watercolors and drawings by Queen Victoria (1819-1901) .
No watercolor of Prince Charles has ever been for sale, but some, reproduced in lithograph form, can fetch thousands of pounds on the internet. A few lithographs are also sold on his Highgrove estate. All proceeds from sales are donated to the Prince’s Foundation, which organized the exhibition, or to its charities, says Rosie Alderton.
Over the years, those sales have reportedly grossed several million pounds, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Fifty of Prince Charles’ watercolors had already been exhibited at Hampton Court Palace in 1998, on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday, and thirty more in 2018 by the National Gallery of Australia on his seventy years.
Since 2019, very busy with his royal duties, the prince has hardly had time for watercolor.
This article was published automatically. Sources: ats / afp