Audio described exhibition portraits

This is a landscape- oriented portrait of pianist, composer, and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy. He was the principal conductor and advisor for Sydney Symphony Orchestra between 2009 and 2013. The rectangular work is 253cm wide and 177cm high. It is supported by a thick, dark-wood frame 7cm wide and 15cm deep. There is a centimetre-wide shadowed gully between its frame and the artwork. The portrait ends before his feet.

Produced in celebration of Ashkenazy’s tenure as Principal Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the portrait was unveiled at the Sydney Opera House in 2011.

Geometric beams and sky behind him suggest Vladamir Ashkenazy is seated in the airy, light-filled interior of the Sydney Opera House’s southern foyer. Surrounding the conductor are sections of glass, orange steel, bronze, wood, sky and concrete. The setting is rendered predominately in tones of orange, yellow, and ochre, contrasting with a white-haired Ashkenazy in the centre, in cream and black.

In the bottom right, through the brightly coloured, complex architecture is a small section of the brilliant blue of Sydney Harbour, fringed in bushland.

A flat, bronze handrail comprised of horizontal sections and thinner, vertical supports forming wide rectangles, begins low on the right edge of the painting. Ashkenazy sits in the middle of the image. Behind him the handrail continues, angling down and disappearing as though following a set of stairs.

Asheknazy is leaning on a thicker, bronze handrail, supported by his elbow. Square sections made of glass with narrow bronze uprights travel out diagonally to the left from behind his body. These handrails guide a way into the work, drawing us into the depiction of the man in a complex, half real, half imagined space, dissected by geometric shapes.

The unique portrait is comprised of carefully chosen Opera House architectural elements brought together to form a striking showcase, like elements of a musical score.

A large section of cylindrical concrete protrudes from the right. Its façade is bathed in light and beneath it is a shadowed underbelly of diagonal slats protruding into the space, calling to mind the prow of a ship. These slats, bathed in shadow, rise from above the low handrail at right, to meet the large, cylindrical concrete curve above.

Behind the rounded concrete shape are angled orange steel uprights and long rectangles of blue sky. Thin vertical, wooden sections in sets of 4, side by side, clad the concrete, each slightly taller than the last. The wood cladding on the concrete cylindrical curve is drenched in honey-coloured sunlight.

Further towards the middle, in front of the curve, is Russian-born Ashkenazy. His warm, olive complexion is complemented by the orange tones in the background. His right elbow is resting upon a narrow, bronze handrail. His head is gently to one side, supported by the curled fingers of his right hand. His hand casts a shadow across his cheek. His white hair is parted to the right, cropped level with his ears, a trifle fluffy.

His high forehead is lined by active, expressive creases. Two pronounced, vertical furrows rest between his dark brows. He has wrinkles around his dark eyes, focused on us. He has a fleshy, rounded nose, lined cheeks and curved creases either side of his nose, leading to his closed, modest lips.

His torso faces us, leaning to the left. He wears a soft, cream, long -sleeved turtleneck and a pair of black dress pants beneath. Ashkenazy’s turtleneck drapes his upper body comfortably, his cuffs drawn back at his wrists. His left hand is outstretched horizontally against his chest, thumb upright and fingers curved in a dynamic, rounded gesture cupping the warm air between his heart and hand.

He sits with his legs apart on a backless stool, both knees splay out to the right suggesting movement. In front of him, on a small, round table, a bound score lies open, two gently curved pages lift into waves, curling at their outer-most edges. At their spine, musical notes show through the parchment. The green-bound volume is in two even halves. Its broad yellow pages rest on a low, round wooden table. Under it, is a strong metal pedestal base. It is as though we are in the process of walking upstairs onto a glass framed landing, to join Ashkenazy.

Behind Ashkenazy and rising from the left, imposing angled beams are arranged diagonally and pointing upward. The wide beams are incrementally coloured, from shadowy reddish brown in the top right corner, through the spectrum of warm ochres and orange, to a tempered yellow behind his head. Over the top of these beams are four, widely spaced, thin curves, sweeping through the work.

Functionally, these curved steel pipes hold the angular, diagonal beams in place in a nod to the grand, gravity-defying design of the Opera House.

The thin curved pipes add another layer of geometry in the airy, light-filled space.

The gradient of coloured beams continues behind Ashkkenazy, up to an apex. In the middle of the work’s top edge, are rows of orange-tinted, steel rigging joists. These are small due to their distance from us, high up in the Opera House’s ceiling.

Behind Ashkenazy’s head, on the left, a large sheet of glass cuts through the image vertically. The glass holds an angled, reflection of his hand and the side of his head, as if suspended.

It is Ashkenazy’s striking white hair and cream jumper that are the brightest spots in the painting, drawing us into what the painter Ralph Heimans describes as ‘an unexpected jumble of intersecting trusses, parabolic cables, glass reflections and fractured segments of blue sky’.

This is a landscape- oriented portrait of academic and former judge The Honourable Michael Kirby AC CMG. These abbreviations mean Companion of the Order of Australia and Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. He was appointed a Justice of the High Court of Australia in 1996 and is known for his advocacy for LGBTIQA+ rights, human rights, animal welfare and the arts.

The rectangular work is 231cm wide x 185cm high with a 4mm thin, timber frame 4.4cm deep. There is a narrow, half centimetre divide between the frame and the canvas.

Justice Kirby served in the High Court of Australia until 2009 and earnt the nickname ‘The Great Dissenter’. He expressed disagreement with the majority opinion of the court on many occasions.

Judicial attire has remained unchanged for centuries. Traditionalists argue that robes and wigs imbue court proceedings with a certain sense of respect and gravitas, promoting formality and maintaining order. But judges of the High Court of Australia haven’t been required to wear wigs since 1988, so artist Ralph Heimans chose to represent Justice Kirby in the robes he wore as a Judge of the NSW Supreme Court. These robes are a dramatic shade of red trimmed with white fur, and are worn with a black sash around the waist.

All of the figures in the painting except for Justice Kirby are wearing full bottomed judges’ wigs. These are handmade, traditionally from horsehair, and are off-white and coarse in texture. Centrally parted, closely coiled rows of curls form a crown that fits around the wearer’s head. Approximately 2 centimetres above the wearer’s eyebrows is a neat, 3cm-high, brushed wave of upturned hair framing the forehead.

The curls stop level with the top of the wearer’s ears. Here the coarse wig hair is woven into 1cm horizontal rows, all the way down the back of the head, stopping at the collar. Thinner flaps surround the face, continuing over the shoulders to below the collarbone, where the wig finishes. At the sides, a thick, neat, vertical border-seam keeps the wigs ends from fraying.

The portrait is of Michael Kirby from his head to just below his knees. He is part of a group of seven, fair-skinned older men, all wearing the same red robes. To Michael Kirby’s left are four are judges. Michael Kirby stands off centre, to the right. His body is facing the two figures to his right, but he is looking over his shoulder towards the viewer, as if we’ve just interrupted him. He is the only one of the judges not wearing a wig.

Six of the men form a loose cue, Michael Kirby stands slightly apart. They are preparing to pass through a doorway leading to a darkened room in the back left corner. The floor beneath their black shoes is timber, polished to a high shine. Horizontal shadows on the floor suggest other figures already in the corridor beyond the darkened doorway.

Each man’s robes have thick, draping sleeves with very wide cuffs trimmed in white fur and extending from wrist to elbow. A wide, red collar, worn long, drapes down over the shoulders like a short cape. It too has a white, fur edge. At their backs hang long, fur-rimmed hoods, draped in an exaggerated loop. Their red robes are drawn in at the waist by a wide, black sash.

The men wear black, laceless shoes and black socks.

Their forms cast long, horizontal shadows across the timber floor.

The unadorned room is illuminated by light passing from the doorway into the space. The wide door frame and rear wall are painted an olive green. A thick shadow along the length of the back wall forms a border at the top of the image.

Three men in wigs closest to the entrance are turned away from us. The judge who is about to pass through the entranceway holds his white gloves in his left hand. Another man, in profile, some of his features hidden by the left side of his wig, is extending his left hand towards the arm of the man at his side. His colleague stands with his hands on his hips, his back to us. The man in profile is Sir Bernard Sugerman, a former judge of the NSW Supreme Court. He has thick dark eyebrows, black rimmed spectacles and a peaked nose. Much of his mouth is hidden by the long side flap of his wig.

Michael Kirby stands just off-centre and to the right of these men, with his back to Sir Bernard – one of two people whose depictions in the portrait are posthumous. Sugerman served on the Supreme Court until 1970 and died in 1987. This portrait of Michael Kirby was painted in 1998, but the artist decided to include posthumous images of Sugerman and another deceased judge, Sir Gordon Wallace, as symbols of lineage and tradition. Both men, like Michael Kirby, made distinguished contributions to the law and the judiciary in Australia.

Michael Kirby is slightly apart from all the others, closer to us and his penetrating gaze is focused over his right shoulder at us. His wig is tucked and folded under his right arm. He looks mildly irritated, as if distracted from a thought. The right side of his face is in shadow.

Michael Kirby has neatly groomed, slightly over-long, faded ginger hair, parted to the right. A band of lighter grey hair frames his lined face, turning to white at his ears. His forehead holds horizonal, quizzical crinkles. His eyebrows are light, he has small, deep-set greenish-grey eyes.

Light illuminates the right side of his face. His nose is long and a little hooked. Deep lines run from the sides of his nose to above the corners of his lips. His wide mouth is closed, accentuating the lines around it. His round chin is etched with wrinkles.

In front of Michael Kirby, to our right, is Sir Gordon Wallace. He is deep in conversation with a colleague. They are both standing over by the wall, at a distance from Michael Kirby.

Sir Gordon faces away from the door. His face is lined too. He has dark, bushy eyebrows and two pronounced parallel ridges between his dark eyes. His mouth is slightly open in discourse. He holds his right arm up, palm gently cupped – mid-gesture. The Judge with whom he converses is the furthest from the door. He has his back to us, one hand behind it. This man’s robes are rumpled at the knee, as though he is mid-step.

This is a portrait of Tom Uren AC, who was Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party between 1975 and 1977. AC means he received a Companion of the Order of Australia.

The painting is landscape oriented and is 172cm wide by 141 cm high. It is housed in an 11cm wide frame. The frame has a wider outer edge and a narrower, bevelled one within it. The stained, dark, grey wood is worn and weathered. The portrait ends at the bottom hem of Uren’s shirt.

As a politician, Tom Uren campaigned against conscription during the Vietnam War, and against nuclear testing. He promoted the restoration and reuse of rundown inner city suburbs, seeking to preserve the heritage and character of Sydney. He was a boxer in the 1940s, early in his career.

Against the backdrop of a grey-streaked sky, Tom Uren, a slightly dishevelled, white-haired man, stands at a wooden lectern, mid speech.

The lectern is on our left, made of raw wood. A piece of paper covered in writing is slipping off the front edge closest to us. Uren’s right hand hovers above it. His arms and hands are open and the sleeves of his grey shirt are rolled up to just below his elbow.

His head and shoulders are angled away from the lectern, facing towards us. The left side of his face, like the angled front of the lectern is bathed in bright light. Uren’s short, receding white hair is side parted, and blowing slightly in the breeze.

Uren’s eyebrows are darker than his hair, sparse and small. Around and underneath his eyes are wrinkles, though his blue-grey gaze is clear and bright. He looks off to the right. He has high colour in his cheeks. Uren has a bulbous nose which is red at the very tip, as is his chin. His mouth is small and his pink lips are parted, as though mid- sentence.

He has a lined, clean-shaven chin. Beneath it, his neck is soft and wrinkled.

He wears a loose-fitting, slightly too big, dark-grey collared shirt. It sags at the front. A pocket on each chest, and wrinkles in the grey fabric front suggest the weight of something in each.

The brightly lit front of the lectern casts the lower part of his body in shadow. His legs are cut off by the bottom edge of the work.

Behind his head it is as though the sun struggles to break free of the grey cloud. A burst of streaky white sunlight illuminates his head and shoulders.

On our right, his left hand is raised, bent at the elbow. He is mid-flight, mid-gesture.

At his elbow is a high table with two red, well-used boxing gloves positioned next to one another. The laces of the left glove drip down off the front of the small wooden table.

Above the gloves, murky and distant, is the unmistakeable silhouetted skyline of central Sydney, including the Sydney Eye Tower.

This is a rectangular portrait of New Zealand anthropologist Derek Freeman. The work is a drawing, measuring 67cm high by 55cm wide. It is mounted in and off-white cardboard ‘window mount’ - a mount that creates a window around the print and lifts the glazing from the surface of the artwork. The mount border is 15cm wide at the top and bottom, and 10cms wide at the sides. The mount is fitted into a 2cm wide, walnut-coloured, wooden frame. The work is protected by a panel of clear, museum-grade acrylic glazing.

Anthropologist Derek Freeman is drawn in pencil lines and pastel shading on raw, unbleached paper. Much of the pastel, grey-green of the paper remains.

A book Freeman wrote caused controversy in 1983; in 1996, a play was written about the uproar. Artist Ralph Heimans got to know Freeman through his father, who made a documentary film about Freeman’s work. This drawing was made in preparation for a painting of Freeman which Heimans never finished.

Freeman’s features and expression are the most detailed parts of the pencil sketch. His suit-jacketed shoulders and buttoned vest are swiftly rendered in light pencil lines. Thicker black, pastel crayon has been used in places, bringing shadows around his chin and hairline. Cool, white highlights accentuate the central furrow above his tired eyes and the curve of his mid-length thinning hair - up and out from the crown of his high forehead.

Freeman is a man in his mid 60s. He is seated, holding his chin as though deep in thought. The curled fingers of his left hand rest over his chin. His thumb is hidden in shadow under his throat. The knuckle of his index finger sits over his lower lip.

Freeman’s shoulders, torso and hand are drawn in outline only. The artist has used cross-hatched pencil lines for shading on the back of his hand; the fingertips are unfinished, the detail diminishing with lighter and lighter pencil touches.

Freeman’s lips are closed and mostly hidden by his curled left hand. Deep lines around his mouth give rise to a large, overhanging, down-turned nose. Freeman’s cheeks are loose and thin. His head is bent toward his chest, his dark, downcast eyes are focusing on something beyond the portrait, in the foreground in front of us.

His hooded eyes have fleshy pockets beneath and a knitted brow above, beset by shadows. His eyebrows are bracketed by habitual, curved lines at their top corners. His wide brow is furrowed.

Light strands of wispy, white-and-grey hair curve up and away from a central part. His hair falls long and straight, over his ears to his collar.

His left shoulder is lower than the right, thin pencil lines taper off before an elbow.

The artists signature, drawn as interlocking initials appears in the bottom right corner.

This is a landscape-oriented rectangular portrait of British stage and screen actor Dame Judi Dench. It is 175 cm wide and 142 cm high. Its frame is made of painted wood, 12cm wide and consisting of a frame within a frame. The outer edge is bluish black and 2cm wide and 4cm deep. Around its inner edge is a narrow 0.5cm strip, painted gold. The bulk of the frame is 7cm wide and painted bluish-black. The wood tapers to allow for a 3cm bevelled interior edge, painted gold and sitting snuggly against the work.

The interior gold frame catches the light and accentuates the warm tones in the portrait. The dark wood of the frame is weathered, with nicks and cuts across its surface.

Dame Judi Dench is standing in London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket, the third-oldest playhouse in London.

Attired completely in black except for a soft, blue woollen scarf, she stands part-way between the wings and the stage of an opulently decorated theatre, built in the late eighteenth century.

Standing with her back to the empty, illuminated auditorium filled with rows of seats upholstered in plush, dark blue, Dame Judi has turned her head to look over her left shoulder. The focus of her slightly downcast gaze is something beyond the portrait, almost behind her. Her arms are wrapped around her upper torso across her chest.

The portrait ends at her hips, cut off by the lower edge of the work.

On the left, the black fabric of her soft, voluminous coat outlines her right shoulder against the pulleys, pipes and cables snaking up the wall backstage.

In contrast to the gritty, dimly lit wing at side-of-stage, Dame Judi is luminous. Light caresses her face and neck, accentuating her high cheekbones and the warm, lined features of her expressive, older face. Her lips are made up in a soft coral. They rest on one another, closed and slightly uneven. Her nose is round and well-proportioned. Small wrinkles crowd the corners of her eyes. The hue of her soft scarf matches the cornflower blue of her eyes.

Her white-tinged, grey hair is shorter around her ears, and longer at the top, in a pixie cut. Her short fringe is at all angles, two small tufts fall onto her lined, pinky-yellow forehead.

The long, blue scarf is loosely wrapped around her neck. It passes over her left shoulder and falls to hip height, ending in a fine, soft fringe. The other end of the scarf flows down her front.

Her left hand is tucked under her right arm and she wears a square-faced gold watch on her left wrist. Her thumb is extended and resting on the pliant, black material of her coat. Her fingers disappear, tucked into the cleft between her chest and upper arm. Her right arm is loosely crossed underneath.

Dame Judi’s coat cuffs expose her forearms. Pale, golden skin stands out against the blue of her scarf. On her right wrist are two round, silver bangles and an elegant, loosely fitting, fine gold chain. Below her arms, her figure is lost in the loose weight of her coat and ends approximately mid-thigh, cut off by the bottom edge.

Extending behind Dame Judi, near the front of the stage, are two private viewing boxes. These have been built into the side of the auditorium and are ornately decorated. A dark contrast to the blue of her scarf, and her glowing features, the lowest, curved, protruding viewing balcony has a smooth, marble front inset with short brown pillars. The empty, darkened interior is partly obscured by a scalloped curtain across the top and down the sides. The woven-gold fabric has a raised floral design and is fringed with tassels.

Above it is another balcony, higher than Dame Judi’s head. Columns of horizontal gold pipes rise either side of this balcony. The rounded front is chocolate-coloured, decorated with a gold, rectangular panel, with intricate corners and a rondel at its centre, (a circular plate). The ends of richly fringed, golden curtains flank the darkened space within.

Deeper into the venue and next to the top balcony, rises the second, ribbed, gold pillar. It meets a square, chocolate coloured pillar adjacent to the scalloped curtain of the lower viewing balcony rising from the floor. On it, is a chunky, long, ornamental gold carving. This is the edge of the box seating.

Above the chunky ornament, and to the right, is the curved, luminous, yellow-gold, front edge of the dress circle balcony, drawing us deeper into the venue.

On its front fascia is a row of large, linked, braided diamond shapes. They crisscross right the way along, their pattern broken by trios of bright little lamps omitting muted, yellow light. (Focused on a lower door, the dark silhouette of a rectangular Fresnel light, angling down, looks out of place against the yellow-gold fascia).

The curved, narrow dress circle is filled with tiered rows of blue seating. On the left and at the rear are textured, golden-brown walls. On the left, high on the wall, are twin lamps, mounted and glowing. An aisle of steps splits the seats, it leads to a door. Every riser on the stairs glows with fine dots of blue light. The glass door is closed, darkness beyond it. To the right of the door are wall-mounted mirrors, further reflecting the ceiling of the dress circle and spots of light, back into the venue.

Above the dress circle its ceiling is light mauve with braided gold detail around a small hanging lampshade, it too omitting light. Further up is part of another golden balcony, its braided detail and clustered lamp light cut off by the upper edge of the work.

The dress circle balconies look out over the auditorium. Tucked in below them is a wall, leading diagonally out to the right. On the wall a muted fresco meets a top-lit entrance door with a half open door. Through it, is a descending stairwell.

The walls at the rear of the auditorium, right at the back, comprise dark wood, panelled sections outlined in rectangles of gold. Small, wall mounted lampshades hang above head height.

A dark blue carpeted walkway winds between the wall and rows and rows of seating below the stage, to the right of Dame Judi’s back. At the start of each horizontal row of seats is a golden chair leg. Plush, blue and dimly lit, 18 partial rows of seats are cut short by the right edge of the portrait.

Dame Judi’s cooly lit, greyish-white hair, her face and her blue scarf contrast with the rich golds and browns and spots of lamplight at her back. Her expression is one of wistfulness, as though her breath is caught, and she stands, hugging herself, surrounded by the opulence of a traditional theatre.

This is a large, rectangular portrait of acclaimed British Actor Sir Ben Kingsley, approximately 3m wide x 1.8m high in a grainy, 3cm wide, dark-wood frame with the occasional fine nick in the wooden surface.

Sir Ben is seated in the middle of the work, his body turned to the left with his knees apart. In front of him, at the extreme left of the image, half of a low wood fire burns merrily in a wide copper dish, the other half cut off by the left edge of the work.

The fire casts its light onto the side of a set of stairs and Sir Ben is seated on the fourth step up. Around him, night is falling, and a highly decorative, peach, terracotta, blue, turquoise and black background is in a state of gradual decay. The scene is like a temple ruin.

The stairs cut across the work, taking up half the image, they lead up to a mezzanine with a corner landing at Sir Ben’s back. In place of walls and windows, there are sections of crisscrossing steel scaffolding in front of an electric blue, night sky.

In the bottom left corner, rows of organically uneven, large stones pave the ground. Sir Ben is dressed in black and he wears thick-soled, suede lace up shoes, resting on the stones. His right foot is turned out, at a relaxed distance from the stairs. His right shoe is very close to the underside of the oval fire dish.

His long-sleeved, black shirt is open to the second buttonhole. His black attire absorbs the shadows in contrast to the predominantly peach and terracotta - coloured surrounds.

Both his sleeves are neatly rolled to above the elbow. He is resting one hand cupped over his left thigh, a gold wedding band catching in the light. Sir Ben’s right wrist leans across his right thigh, fingers loosely curled, his pointer finger is angled at his left shoe.

His golden tanned skin, a sign of his Indian heritage, is bathed in firelight. He is a bald man and his forehead bears horizontal crinkles. Above his neat, dark eyebrows are parallel lines that mimic his brow’s mild, arched shape. His rich, dark brown eyes are unfocused, gazing off to the left, at a point beyond our left shoulder.

His head is angled, a vein zig-zagging beneath the skin at the left side of his head between his forehead and the shell of his large ear. Two indents run the length of his left cheek. He has a rounded, downturned nose and jowls that curve around his mouth. He has short, salt-and pepper facial hair, focused on his top lip, connecting to his chin, and a small tuft under his bottom lip.

His lips are dark, thin and relaxed, a silent line of darkness showing from within.

Amongst the ruins, he sits on the fourth step up on an old set of stairs, with no railing. The eight, long, wide treads cut across the space diagonally, a short wall behind them at right.

The fascia of the stairs and Sir Ben’s hands and face glow, preternaturally lit by the flames. We are positioned below Sir Ben, as though we’re seated on the floor. The staircase and monolithic elements of the ruins rise like mystical figures around his seated form.

The stairs are edged in wood and bathed in shadow. Each tread has a layer of thin pine on top and is left plain. On the sides and front of each step is a repeating, wallpaper-like, floral-inspired pattern consisting of thin, short turquoise tapering ellipses, adjacent to aqua stalks, split at their tops. Each stalk fans out into corona-like pink petals, They are interspersed by taller, turquoise stems with splayed, brush-like decorative tops. There are dozens of these motifs on the stairs.

The patterns are old and damaged, peeling away everywhere. Turned up, patterned corners draw in shadows from the firelight. Either side of Sir Ben, significant sections of pattern are missing, exposing the plain wood beneath.

Below the eighth and highest stair, and behind the oval fire, rectangular chunks of cladding panels are missing, revealing scaffolding pipes, and the blue night sky.

At the top, the stairs are flanked by two massive, circular pillars rising up beyond the top edge of the work. Their wide, bulbous bases loom large, ringed by tall, interlocking triangular petal shapes, wider at the bottom, sharp and narrow at the top. The cracked and chipped marble surface of the pillars is pastel green, the rising petal shapes are outlined in aqua and further outlined in black with a thin line of white between each colour. At the top of each wide petal, a black line rises, becoming stripes outlined in gold that stretch to the heavens, up and out of frame, two on the left pillar and three on the right.

Behind Sir Ben’s right shoulder is a third pillar, further away and more dimly lit. The thin stripes outlined in gold running vertically up its circumference end in small, upside-down arches, a stripe of red at each centre, they circle the pillar.

Further up, horizontal bands of aqua, red, and yellow lead to a flared pillar-top, like a long turquoise floret, ringed with vertical leaves painted onto the turquoise. The very top of the flanged, floret shape has a band of gold around it, and onto it rests the wood cladding for the corner of another, higher floor. This suggests a grand scale to the ruins.

To the right of this pillar, also at the top of the stairs, behind Sir Ben is a thick, rectangular, apricot-coloured, entrance-way. A heavy, curled, stone wave runs along its highest horizontal edge, narrower at bottom and wider at the top. This section of the entrance’s front facade is black, orange and green striped. Over the top of the stripes are side-by-side feathery wings. They span the full width. Between them is an apricot circle, outlined in black.

The rectangular entrance to the archway is flanked by weathered and worn, apricot coloured, thick square pillars. Each side is dressed by two, narrow, red, black and silver poles. A section of wall at right, holds images of rows of seated and standing Egyptian-style figures. This sliver of wall is connected to the entrance. A hole in the wall yawns to the far right of the image.

The architectural elements stand alone and in between them are sections of rich, mid-blue sky, glowing with the last of the day’s sun. Sprawled across every inch of these sections of sky, is lattice-like construction scaffolding making an intricate patchwork that cuts the sky into horizontal and vertical lines.

Light touches the work in many places, most noticeable from the firelight at bottom left, it travels onto Sir Ben’s face and onto the white pillar at his back in a smooth, diagonal sweep.

This is a large, richly colourful landscape-oriented, rectangular portrait of King Charles III, painted in 2018 when he was still Prince of Wales. The rectangular work is 252cm wide and 188cm deep, set in a 15cm predominantly-dark-wood frame. At the frame’s inner recess, is a 3cm bevelled edge with evenly spaced, diagonal ridges carved into the gilded timber.

Charles III is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Heir apparent to the throne since 1952 when his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, ascended to the throne, Charles became King in September 2023, the oldest person to accede the British throne.

In the portrait, the then Prince of Wales stands by a large window in the Tapestry Room at Dumfries House in Scotland. Dumfries House is of great significance to the King, having been purchased for the public in 2007 by his charitable foundation, the Prince’s Trust.

Dressed in a grey and tan tweed suit, he holds a long walking staff across his body at an angle to the ground. King Charles is at the centre of the work, in a room with a large, arched window at left. The mirror-like polished surface of a grand piano occupies the foreground of the work. The interior of the room features much intricate, reddish-coloured wooden architectural detail.

Beyond the window, on our left, a tall, broad wizened oak tree grows. Its leaves and branches are lush at the top. Lower down, the green lawns of the grounds and patch of cloud-streaked sky peaks through. Angled in front of the window is a baby grand piano. Its lid is a highly polished dark wood and the reflection of green leaves from the oak spills into the room.

The huge window at left is in 3 parts. It comprises 28 bevelled, square-framed wooden sections. The tall, middle section of panels is topped with a glass semi-circle. On each side are narrower, 12-panel windows.

In front of the windowsill is a dark, polished and narrow wooden table. At the window’s edge at left, adjacent to the King and perpendicular to the window, behind the table, is a section of red- wood panelling. It is the side of a huge wooden frame around the elegant, arched, bay window. The uppermost edge of the window’s wooden arch and the top of a domed, pale green ceiling is cut off by the top edge of the work.

Angled light passing through the window’s glass squares casts overlapping, geometric shadows onto the 90-degree, wooden section of window’s frame. In front of the panel is a chair, upholstered in blue silk featuring a decorative Scottish thistle motif.

King Charles stands to the right of the chair. He is wearing a double breasted, grey tweed suit, patterned with squares made of thin, horizontal tan and vertical brown, stitched lines.

His fair skinned face and light hair are brightened by the light from the window. The darkness of the piano in the foreground and the lush bright green of the oak at left, draw us towards his features. His silver hair is combed away from his forehead, up and to the left. The King’s hair is longer and thinner at his temples and thicker at the sides, tapering in front of his ears.

70 years old when the portrait was painted, the King’s fair-skinned, pinky-red complexion is gently etched with wrinkles, above his brow, in the corners of, and beneath his eyes. On his forehead, horizontal worry lines are overlaid by other vertical lines, between his bushy, blond brows. With his head slightly angled towards the focus of his gaze, he is looking off to our left. Bright blue eyes and an upward tilt of his brow in a mild squint, offer a contemplative King.

The remarkable clear blue of his eyes accentuates the other hints of blue throughout the room; in the upholstery of the chair behind him, the tones of his silk tie and a small, royal blue button on his lapel.

The King’s nose is long with a crook in its bridge. His cheeks glow pink, as does the tip of his rounded nose. Around his mouth is smooth and as though freshly shaven. His wide lips are open a fraction, a sliver of darkness between them. Lines curve from the sides of his nose to below his mouth. There is a family resemblance to his mother in his wide, lightly cleft, chin.

Skin at his throat catches the light coming from the window. He wears a crisp, sky-blue shirt and a wide-striped navy, dark green and indigo tie, slightly askew. Below his collar, on the lapel of his suit jacket, on the right, are a small, round, gold pin and a bunched, navy ribbon. His folded pocket-square is indigo.

His suit is buttoned at the waist with large gold buttons. There is a line of 4 smaller, gold buttons on his right cuff.

King Charles’ right arm is bent at the elbow, his thick fingers wrap around the curved, gold handle of a long walking staff, angled down and across his body. His left hand at his hip holds its tapering dark wood between thumb and forefinger. A gold signet ring adorns his little finger.

Caught in the natural light spilling into the room, a brightness surrounds The King, contrasting with the austere opulence of the room.

Behind the King’s right shoulder is an alcove which echoes the curve of the window arch. On a high shelf, is a rectangular, free-standing dark wooden clock with gold detail.

The clock looks out from its shadowy corner at a floor-to-ceiling tapestry depicting a forest and mountain scene. The tapestry is two-metres wide and bordered in grey. King Charles stands in front of the tapestry, obscuring some of its detail. On the ground before it is an orrery – a mechanical model of the solar system. Half of the orrery is hidden behind the King, as is the low, wooden table on which it sits.

In front of the tapestry, a carved red-wood beam passes overhead. A ribbed pillar to the right of King Charles and several meters into the room, marks the orrery alcove’s front edge.

To the right of the pillar, an austere, carved semi-circle in the ceiling includes a vine wreath, some of the vine wreath and half of the wooden arch are cut off by the painting’s right edge.

On the floor in front of the ribbed pillar is an intricately embroidered yellow, red and green rug with large, flat rosettes in its border. A rectangle of light passing into the room from the window falls upon the rug. Beyond the pillar, honey-coloured parquetry floors lead out and down a cream and pale green, domed and decorative corridor patterned with sunlight to our right.

This is a landscape-oriented portrait of the then Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.

The rectangular work is 250 cms wide by 170 cm high, in a thin 4mm black frame. There is a 4mm divide between the edges of the portrait and its frame.

It was painted in 2006. Her mother-in-law Queen Margrethe II abdicated on January 14, 2024, and Princess Mary became Queen of Denmark, as wife of King Frederik the 10th. Queen Mary is originally from Hobart, Tasmania.

A prominent public figure, Queen Mary is known for her advocacy of humanitarian aid and social welfare, and also as a fashion icon. As this portrait was made in 2006, the audio description will refer to the subject in her former role as Princess Mary of Denmark.

Princess Mary is depicted from head to mid-shin in the portrait. She stands in the Garden Room of Fredensborg Palace, the site of state visits and important royal events. At her back is a large, elaborately framed and gilded rectangular mirror. To the right in the work, two more mirrors are affixed to another wall, cutting diagonally across the reflected room. These are also housed in opulent gold frames., All the room’s furnishing are in the rococo style. The cream walls of the room have gold panelling.

Princess Mary stands to the right of the scene, surrounded by richly embroidered teal-silk and gold furniture. She is bathed in gentle morning light. Princess Mary – elegantly dressed in a modern suit, is looking off to the right, into the light. She is in the process of putting on brown, leather gloves. Her coat hangs over the arm of a seat immediately in front of her, in the portrait’s right bottom corner.

Her head is slightly tilted, her shoulder length brown hair is worn loose. She has natural-looking sculpted brows, brown eyes fringed in long, dark eyelashes, a round nose and closed, plump, glossy lips. Her features glow warmly in the morning light. Her right earring catches rays of light – a pin-spot of gold against the rich darkness of her hair.

A modern woman in her mid-thirties, she wears a caramel tweed, waist length fitted jacket with large mahogany -coloured buttons down its front and a matching skirt. Her jacket’s wide collar extends across her left shoulder, the right obscured by her hair and shadows. Her top button is open, the square cut of the jacket collar juts out at her throat. The rest of the buttons are done up, perfectly tailored to fit its wearer’s elegant figure.

At her hip, crossing her body, Princess Mary’s left hand is bare, the cool glow of her wedding band catches the light and contrasts with the dark brown leather of the glove on her other hand. As though she has just slipped on the right glove, her left thumb and forefinger disappear beneath the fabric of her jacket sleeve.

Princess Mary’s matching skirt is fitted around her hips, it hugs her thighs, falling demurely to below the knee. Two long pleats allow for movement, either side of a flawlessly smooth, wide front panel. Most of Princess Mary’s weight is on her left leg. Her shins are encased in toffee-coloured leather boots and the portrait finishes mid-shin, with only a hint of skin between skirt and the top of her boots.

Behind her, Princess Mary’s shadow falls across a gold-framed, three-seat settee, upholstered in aqua coloured silk emblazoned with lilac and silver, vines and flowers. The silver vine detail shines in the sunlight. Princess Mary is surrounded by the settee and its matching armchairs, each with gold detail around their backs and upon each thin arm.

Either side of the settee are heavy, honey-walnut chests of drawers, with golden mouldings around the tops, their surfaces polished to a high shine.

The artist has deliberately altered details of the Garden Room to create multiple allusions to Princess Mary’s life story. The large, rectangular mirror behind Princess Mary, for example, is the artist’s invention, to our left in the reflection is a cream-coloured doorway that offers a peak to further rooms in a similar colour scheme. The mirror reflects the back of her glamourous long hair and upper body,

Her reflection is positioned in front of square oil painting flanked by two narrow sections of cream wall, decorated in gold detail and rosettes. Above the painting is a section of the ceiling, curved at the sides and flat overhead with heavy patterning. It too is cream, cast almost grey by shadows and cut off by the top edge of the work.

The painting depicts an imposing colonial-era, waterfront building. It is sand-coloured and two stories high with long arch windows and stone railing around the roof. In front of the building are leafy trees at intervals and four docked, white sail boats with empty masts. The painting is of the old Customs House and Constitution Dock in Hobart. In real life, there is no such painting in the Garden Room, but in this portrait, it has been included as a device for referencing the sitter’s birthplace, becoming a symbol also of the life she has left behind.

On the right of the painting, opposite Princess Mary, is the room’s corner. It meets a wall with two doorways flanked by long, turquoise embroidered curtains, each tied open with turquoise braided cord. The wall is cut short in the reflection, as the large mirror ends adjacent to Princess Mary’s left elbow.

On the diagonal wall are twin, square mirrors in elaborate, curling golden frames mounted between the curtained doorways.

Angular light cuts across the building depiction, higher on the right and lower on the left. Mary is caught in it, another jewel in the elaborate room. At her back the shaft of light is reflected in multiple mirrors, the effect is a triangle of sunlight in the reflection of a reflection.

In the square wall mirrors, more of the room’s ceiling is reflected, suggesting a decorative circular pattern at the room’s centre and another other oil painting hidden behind Princess Mary.

Princess Mary is fresh faced and pensive, against a complex backdrop of tradition and opulence. Artist Ralph Heimans’ deft hand captures Princess Mary in a moment of reflection, both literally and figuratively, prior to attending to her official duties.

This is a landscape-oriented portrait of the-then Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark.

The rectangular work is 250 cms wide by 170 high, in a thin 4mm black frame. There is a 4 mm divide between the edges of the portrait and its frame.

To celebrate the 50th birthday of HRH Crown Prince Frederik in 2018, the Museum of National History in Denmark commissioned a new portrait of the then heir to the throne. This is an accompaniment to the artist’s earlier portrait Princess Mary of Denmark for the Museum, created in 2006.

Prince Frederik of Denmark is depicted in the Garden Room of Fredensborg Palace, the site for state visits and important royal events. Prince Frederik is mid-stride, turned towards us and away from a polished timber table. Behind the table, a slim-armed, richly embroidered teal-silk and gold chair has been pushed back, as if Prince Frederik has just left it. He is immaculately dressed in the Danish army’s company uniform of a tapered dark blue jacket, white shirt, bow tie and dark blue dress pants. He has his back to a wall adorned with mirrors.

Prince Frederik has feathery, light brown hair worn short to neatly frame his forehead. His hair is flecked with grey. His left, side-part kicks up boyishly at the front. Fine age lines mar his forehead, under his eyes and his cheeks.

His focused, piercing blue eyes look beyond us, to the left, toward his family in the room beyond. Prince Frederik’s expression is open, a half smile plays on his closed lips. Sunlight bathes the right side of his face. His features are cooly luminous.

Prince Frederik’s formal jacket is unbuttoned, revealing a white dress shirt and waistcoat, a diagonal sash provides a splash of blue. On the high collar of his shirt is a thin red line. His shirt is clasped at his throat by a black bowtie and below it hangs the Grand Commander Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog. This is an elaborate pendant comprising an equilateral red and gold cross, with flared ends. The cross is mounted on a silver and pearl oval backing. Under the large pendant is Prince Frederik’s light-blue silk sash, a diagonal strip of material, higher on the right and lower on the left, bracketed by the thin lapels of his dress jacket.

On the jacket’s right front, above chest height, is a gold badge with a winged insignia. Below it a row of 5, round gold buttons run down the front. Opposite,on his left lapel, is a double row of button-sized, silver medals suspended on light blue and red ribbons. They hang above the chest star of the Order of the Elephant. This is a silver, 15cm wide, ribbed, eight-pointed star with a raised, round middle. At its centre is a penny-sized, silver cross on a vibrant red background.

Four smaller, gold buttons hold the waistcoat together across his trim stomach.

His dress uniform hat, tucked under his left arm and cupped by his left hand, hides another cross. His jacket sleeves have three, embroidered rows of gold braiding at each cuff. Prince Frederik’s white dress uniform gloves are clasped in his right hand. Adjacent, at his hip, are the short, zig-zagging ends of his blue sash and a palm-sized, gold and white elephant. The sash ends are swaying gently.

His navy trousers have ironed front pleats and the fabric creases into loose lines where his left thigh is in motion, moving away from the table.

The portrait ends at shin height. Prince Frederik, one leg in front of the other, makes his way across a woven red and blue rug. Behind him, a diagonal, wide strip of light-wood parquetry covers the ground between the rug and the rear wall.

The large rectangular mirror at his back reflects a family scene and the focus of Prince Frederik’s gaze.

Princess Mary is seated on a blue embroidered chair with their youngest child on her knee. Their other three children, two girls and a boy, are at a table, to her right. The oldest child, Prince Christian is standing, resting one arm on the back of a blue and gold chair, looking towards his father.

Behind them are tall mirrors between blue curtained windows, offering a complex reflected perspective of the room. Beyond the window, evening light bathes a section of the palace gardens, and a road leads away from the palace into the sunset.

The wall behind Frederik, below the large mirror, is cream with thin, rectangular gold detailing to hip height. To the left, deeper in the room are two more, tall, gold-framed mirrors separated by a green marble fireplace. Each of the mirrors reflects aspects of the room back at us.

The ceiling above is ornate and slightly domed. It too is a reflected perspective.

The corner of the room near Princess Mary is beyond Prince Frederik’s left shoulder, at the centre of the work. A bright little lamp on a stand is positioned next to two, upholstered blue chairs. Above the lamp is a large, gold-framed painting of pillars and ruins, behind Prince Frederik’s head and shoulders. To the left are closed, cream, gold-detailed double doors. Above the doors are more gold-framed ruins.

Furthest to our left, a mirror reflects the figure of Queen Margrethe (Mar- GREAT -uh) II in a long maroon dress. She stands amongst stone ruins, dwarfed by a classical archway. Her full-length pose is angled as though watching her son.

Around Prince Frederik, the room’s honey coloured parquetry is populated with furniture pieces. Under the painting of the Queen, an ornate, narrow, gold table is positioned against the cream wall. The table has a blue finish and on top is a thin, gold stemmed lamp with a white shade and two ivory, flame shaped sculptures leaning in to one another.

Adjacent to Prince Frederik’s right hand is a rectangular, wooden table with golden detail around the sides and down the legs. On the table, lies a slim, maroon, bound volume bearing his royal insignia, at a jaunty angle, as though it has recently been set aside. Behind the table is an embroidered teal-silk and gold chair, angled towards Prince Frederik.

At right set on the parquetry are two, silk-embroidered blue chairs on either side of another slim, gold, marble topped table.

The chair closest to us is mostly missing, cut off by the right edge of the frame.

The rich gold and greenie-blues within the room, the honey-coloured table wood and the muted rug and parquetry floor all contrast sharply with the crisp navy, white and gold of Prince Frederik’s suit.

This is a large, landscape-oriented portrait of Australia’s first female Governor General at her former residence and workplace, Government House, Canberra. The rectangular work is 190 cm wide by 136 cm high with a dark wood frame 3cm wide and 5cm deep. There is a narrow, half centimetre divide between the frame and the canvas.

Government House looks out over Yarralumla’s hectares of well-maintained gardens, drylands and the Molonglo River spillway called Scrivener Dam. The 54-hectare property on the Commonwealth Heritage list is renowned for its gardens and flora.

The portrait depicts the subject from head to above the knee. Dame Quentin Bryce unveiled this portrait at Australia’s Parliament House in 2014 during celebrations at the end of her tenure as Governor General.

In bright sunlight, Dame Quentin Bryce stands in a balcony doorway. Both the door and the wall either side of her are made from white framed, horizontal glass panels. Each panel is approximately 30 cm wide and 20 cm high. There are more than 16, or part thereof, glass panels included in the portrait. The panels on our left are closest and the scene angles away to the right, drawing us toward the figure in the centre.

Dame Quentin is a slim woman, immaculately turned out in a purple dress suit. With her left hand outstretched, she holds open her office’s glass-panelled door.

A rock garden set against the balcony’s gently curved, low white wall is reflected in the glass panels, low on our left. Above is a reflected portion of wetlands and grasses of Yarralumla’s sprawling beauty and a white sun, muted behind cloud. The reflection of a long, gnarled and forked eucalypt branch stretches across the entire image, thinner, lower and more gnarled at left.

Also on the left, a small pool of light created by a thin-stemmed lamp illuminates a portion of the interior behind her, as though it is floating in the reflection above the rock garden. Behind a wooden lectern, stacked books rest on a table next to a white box, wrapped with a blue bow.

Atop the reflected balcony wall, at the same height as the lamp in the room within, is the reflection of a three-tiered metal railing and the fine, leafy ends of the eucalypt. Curling branches embrace the sun. The sky is cloud-streaked, golden hues at the bottom, lighter blue higher up.

Dame Quentin’s office door is opening outwards, the thin, silver door handle still in her hand. She is leaning her weight to the left and is paused on the threshold. The reflection of eucalypt branches is interrupted by the open door.

Dame Quentin Bryce is an older, Caucasian woman, with immaculately styled blonde hair. Her blond bob sweeps across the right of her forehead, continuing in a wave around the shell of her ear, tapering on both sides above her collar.

She wears large silver, star-shaped earrings, with five, long, pointed petals. Her left ear is obscured by her hair and the angle of her stance. Her sharp gaze travels out to the right. Her features are bathed in the concentrated glow of the sun onto the balcony terrace.

A determined-looking woman, with a luminous complexion, Dame Quentin has a narrow face, a high forehead and between her eyes are thin furrows. Her sharply defined fine, dark eyebrows taper up at their ends. Her blue eyes are hooded and around them are fine wrinkles. Lines curve from the edges of her round nose to the corners of her closed mouth.

Light hits the left side of her body with greater intensity, and her left cheekbone glows. Her wide lips are closed, coated in neutral -toned lipstick, above her rounded chin.

Dame Quentin cuts an elegant figure in a collared, dark purple, wool- blend, double breasted suit. The jacket is buttoned. On her left collar is a small, round golden button. Below it is a flat, silver brooch in the shape of the dove of peace. The jacket ends below her waist. Her fitted skirt is cut off by the bottom edge of the work. Sunlight through the panelled door casts diagonal shadows across her body.

Jutting away from her right hip, Dame Quentin holds a slim, cream binder with a subtle, gold crown on its back cover – the symbol of her role as the representative of the crown in Australia. Between her thumb and forefinger, she holds an uncapped black and silver fountain pen. She wears a silver ring on the ring finger of her right hand. Her pen- hand and a portion of the white binder are reflected in the glass.

Behind her left hip, through the door, is the corner of a heavy, light coloured, wooden desk. Further into the room is a dark blue flag hanging limply on a pole on the floor and revealing part of a yellow crowned lion.

Beyond the flag is a high, wood panelled wall and an open door. Further inside the second room, is a sliver of a First Nations dot painting against a light blue wall, and below it a miniature of silver soldiers illuminated by the glow from a small lamp with a silver base on a table.

To Dame Quentin’s right, is the remainder of her desk with the sun shining on it. Across the desk are meticulously arranged objects and reading materials.

To the right, in the glass above her arm holding the door, her head and shoulders are reflected, including a second, silver, petal earring on her left ear. The sun’s rays hit the side of her desk and the glass panels reflect the wetlands beyond the balcony.

The eucalypt branch is thicker here, rising above her head and away to the right, against a pale, gold and blue cloud streaked sky.

This is a portrait of Canadian poet and novelist Margaret Atwood in a broad, dark wood, antique rectangular frame. It’s a style known as a tabernacle frame in that the interior is shaped into an arch to form a niche with the subject at its centre – a style associated with altarpieces and devotional images. It also refers to the thick, ornate pieces of jutting wood at the top and bottom of the frame.

The bottom edge of the frame is bevelled and juts out from the wall. The work is 93 cm wide and 67cm high. The work includes her head and shoulders, ending mid-chest.

The inclusion of a wooden staff, the faux biblical setting and the sitter’s luminosity underscore the idea explored in the portrait of Atwood as a patron saint of literature. The staff and the moody wooded background are also a reference to Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and to the character of Prospero, a sorcerer.

To the left and right, two thirds of the way up the sides of the frame are tall, narrow pillars carved into the wood with petal-like details at the tops. These pillar tops connect one side of the carved, narrow and twisting arched frame to the other.
Around the edge of the arch is a panel of flat, dark wood, 20cm at its widest point. The original grain shows through. Inside the arch, a carved, 3-tiered, bevelled edge right the way around separates the top carved arch from the portrait. It is a heavy, elaborate frame.

Margaret Atwood’s head, shoulders and forearms stand out from a darkened background. Her face, hair and hands are luminous against the gloom. She rests the centre of her forehead on a long staff, with a shallow cleft in it right at the very top (close to the centre of the frame’s arch). She clasps the staff between both hands, one atop the other.

Margaret Atwood is a striking-looking older woman with strong features. Her skin is pale, her high forehead is surrounded by a riot of white curls, every hair catches the light. The fine, enthusiastic curls are flecked with grey and blond.

Her curls part to the right on her high temple. Longer curls fall around her forehead, framing it, encouraged by gravity and the slight forward angle of her head leaning on the staff. Curls cover her ears.

She is angled towards us, her left shoulder touching the right interior edge of the portrait frame.

The narrow dark-wood staff she holds is resting somewhere solid beyond the bottom of the frame and travels up, disappearing past the top painted edge of the work. Her glowing complexion offers up subtle tones of yellow, blue and pink. A vibrancy emanates.

The staff’s shadow curves from the middle of her forehead over the unlined space between her wide-set eyebrows, along the corner of her left eye and down the side of her nose to join further shadows on the right, around her cheek and chin.

Margaret’s eyes are an arresting blue, framed by thin, arched, dark eyebrows. Her right eyebrow is half hidden by the staff. The soft tissue under Margaret’s eyes sits proud, in half crescents. Her direct gaze is centred out beyond the viewer’s left shoulder.

Her lips are closed across her teeth, the wide set of her mouth pushes smile-lines up and out into the flesh surrounding her mouth. Shadows catch in the curved lines bracketing her nose and the sides of her mouth.

She wears a palest-blue, rumpled linen shirt unbuttoned at her nape, and a black, long-sleeved jacket. A cornflower blue scarf with vertical crinkles hangs around her neck and down her front.

Her left hand overlays her right, holding her staff. Her pale hands are finely wrinkled and her wrists protrude from the jauntily-folded light-coloured shirt cuffs, sticking out from the soft cuffs of her jacket.

Around her is navy gloom. At the bottom left, hazy, pale light falls on rocks and the silhouette of a ruined, jagged tree.

This is a small, rectangular portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the then reigning monarch of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms. The portrait is of her head and shoulders, set against a royal blue background that glows around her shoulders and neck.

Queen Elizabeth II’s reign was the longest of any British monarch, and the longest of any female monarch anywhere. The work is 59 cm high and 42 cm wide in a 10cm-wide ornate, white-gold frame. A beveled 2cm edge of pointed, patterned leaves sits against the portrait, separated from a wider pattern around the work by a half centimetre-wide gold band. The wide outer section of the frame is decorated with a detailed pattern of U-shaped leaves, pointed and scalloped. This indented 7cm border meets the frame’s aged, gold-painted wooden edge.

Artist Ralph Heimans is known for portraits which seek to explore something of their subjects’ inner stories. His paintings, typically, are large and involve complex settings, intricate details, mirrors and reflections.

This portrait is a study of the late Queen’s face only, made when Heimans was working on his very large portrait of the sitter in 2012. The finished painting, more than 2 metres high and almost 3 and a half metres wide, is currently on permanent public display in the Diamond Jubilee Galleries of Westminster Abbey. It is a much different work.

When this portrait was painted Queen Elizabeth ll was 86 years old, fair-skinned and silver haired. She had been queen for 60 years. As monarch, she was accustomed to sitting for portraits and being observed.

Against a rich blue background, fading to black at the edges, Heimans has captured Her Majesty in a moment of thoughtful vulnerability. Her blue eyes regard us from under a slightly furrowed brow, in contrast to the practiced set of her jaw and her closed, expressionless mouth.

Her features are accentuated with natural makeup applied over a papery-fine, aging complexion. Her fringe is carefully raised, a full head of white hair coiffed in a grandmotherly style, her curls are infused with volume and framing her forehead. White curls cover the tips of her ears, tapering off behind them.

Her eyebrows are a light grey-brown. The fleshy, inelastic skin beneath her brows weighs lightly upon her eyelids, softening her expression and drawing her eyes down at their edges. Smile-lines trap thin, horizontal shadows at the sides of, and under her eyes.

Light shines on her face from the left. Yellow and coral-pink highlights scatter along the skin of her cheekbones, on the ridge of her nose and her lower cheeks.

Below a strong nose with a rounded tip, her wide lips are closed. Rose-coloured lipstick applied some time ago allows the lighter pallor of her natural lip tone to show through on her lower lip. She has a flat, rounded chin with the beginnings of soft jowls either side, accentuated by the set of her lips. Shadows form in the delicate skin of her neck.

In her ears are diamond earrings; large teardrop-shaped stones suspended from two consecutive circular stones. Due to the slight angle of her head, her left earlobe is obscured by her cheek.

A matching silver and diamond necklace sits against Her Majesty’s skin in the modest V of her jewel-encrusted gown, one of the dresses she wore with the Robe of State. The necklace is formed from a string of 5-cent piece sized diamonds wreathing around her neck, and from which a heavy, equally large, oval pendant hangs below the central diamond.

Beneath her earrings, resting on her collar are the wide, white satin bows attached to the ermine-trimmed Robe of State. The pleated satin ribbons run front to back on either shoulder, and at the bottom of the stack of pleats, the end of each ribbon forks into two triangular points.

The ribbons embellish the collar at the top of the robe, which is trimmed in white ermine fur and studded with a pattern of dark ermine tails, forming small dark spots. The cape continues along her shoulders and covers the tops of her arms.

Beneath the fur, the bodice of her cream dress ends just above her bosom. The rest of her torso is cut off by the bottom edge of the work.

Tiny, overlapping silver half-moons sewn onto the satin fabric follow the V-shaped neckline below her necklace. The top of her dress is further embellished with embroidery accentuated by pearls, thin lines of gold, and tiny emeralds.

The regal Queen appears both luminous and fragile.