Buckingham Palace’s Picture Gallery has undergone a major transformation ahead of the summer opening, with the number of masterpieces almost doubling to 120 to create a ‘once-in-a-generation’ display.Â
In a striking visual revamp, the state room’s coral pink velvet wall coverings, which dated from 1976, have been replaced with vibrant new emerald-green silk damask.
Paintings by Rubens, Caravaggio and Zoffany are among those on show for visitors, with the new presentation of artwork taking 875 hours to hang.
In what the Royal Collection described as a ‘once-in-a-generation display’, the number of paintings has almost doubled from 63 to 120.
Additions include Zoffany’s The Tribuna of the Uffizi, which was commissioned by Queen Charlotte but never displayed because she disliked its crowded and unconventional composition. It was last hung in the Picture Gallery in 1841.
Also new this year is a widely discussed oil study of the King by Jonathan Yeo, which was commissioned in 2020 to celebrate the then-Prince of Wales’s 50 years as a member of The Drapers’ Company.
The red-hued depiction of the King was recently gifted to the Royal Collection by Yeo and hangs in the Silk Tapestry Room adjacent to the Picture Gallery.
Art dealer Philip Mould described the fiery red painting as the ‘most progressive royal portrait in a very long time’ after its unveiling in 2024.Â
Buckingham Palace’s Picture Gallery has undergone a major transformation ahead of the summer opening on Thursday, which will run until September
The number of masterpieces almost doubling to 120 to create a ‘once-in-a-generation’ display
Also new this year is a large oil study of the King by Jonathan Yeo, made in 2023 in preparation for the first official portrait of Charles after his coronation
‘It depicts continuity, mystery, a touch of divinity,’ he said. ‘Modern art is subversive, edgy. It’s very different from the normal public offerings but Johnny has done it in my view. How do you paint a modern monarch? He’s pulled it off.’
The gallery transformation was unveiled after it was revealed no British monarch will ever live at the palace again despite a £369million taxpayer-funded refit.
The King and Queen will not be moving in even when a decade-long refurbishment of the monarch’s official London residence is completed next year. Charles and Camilla will instead reside permanently across The Mall at Clarence House.Â
The decision has largely been driven by the King’s personal determination to open up royal residences to the public more and lessen the burden on taxpayers.Â
However, there is no doubt that he also feels more comfortable at ‘homely’ neighbouring Clarence House, where he has lived since 2003.
He is now 77 and was diagnosed with cancer in 2024, a condition he is still receiving treatment for, although doctors are said to have been delighted by his progress.
The King’s youngest son missed the opportunity to stay at Buckingham Palace while in London this week after being barred over a missed invite deadline.Â
Prince Harry, who arrived in the UK on Tuesday without Meghan, Archie and Lilibet, took too long to accept an offer of royal accommodation from King Charles.Â
The transformation was unveiled after it was revealed no British monarch will ever live at the palace again despite a £369million taxpayer-funded refit (King Charles and Queen Camilla)
Prince Harry is curently in the UK for five days of engagements in London and Birmingham, including marking the one-year countdown to the 2027 Invictus Games
Paintings by Rubens, Caravaggio and Zoffany are among those on show for visitors, with the new presentation of artwork taking 875 hours to hang
A spokesperson for the Duke confirmed the offer to stay in one of the palace’s 775 rooms had been ‘withdrawn’ in a decision they described as ‘disappointing’.Â
Harry is back in the UK for five days of engagements in London and Birmingham, including marking the one-year countdown to the 2027 Invictus Games.Â
The palace’s gallery is visited by more than half a million visitors each year and will open from July 9 to September 27.
The 47-metre-long picture gallery, which was added to the palace by architect John Nash in the 19th century, has changed colour numerous times throughout history, due to shifting tastes and the natural ageing of fabric.
The room has been yellow, lilac which was fashionable in the Victorian period, crimson red, and olive green, which remained for most of the 20th century.
It was switched to pink 50 years ago and now, amid the deterioration of the material, has been spruced up with a change to emerald green.
The room is used by the royal family to host guests, with presidents – including Donald Trump in 2019 – and monarchs taken on a tour to see a special exhibition of Royal Collection items in the gallery when state visits are hosted at the palace.
Visitors will also see A Rough Dog by George Stubbs, believed to show George IV’s pet dog. Thomas Gainsborough’s portrait of Johann Christian Fisch, five Rembrandt paintings and Rubens’s Self Portrait are also on display, with the latter facing a newly added portrait of fellow artist Anthony van Dyck.
Anna Reynolds, surveyor of the King’s pictures, said: ‘This re-hang is an exciting and rare opportunity to significantly increase the number of world-class paintings on display for visitors, in line with our charitable aim to share as much of the Royal Collection as possible.
‘It continues the longstanding tradition of renovations and re-hangs in the Picture Gallery that have commonly taken place following a change of reign, and we are delighted to be able to share it with as many people as possible this summer.’
A Rolls-Royce Phantom IV used by the royal family will be on display in the Grand Entrance Portico, and on show in the Family Pavilion on the West Terrace will be handwritten letters sent to the King by children from around the world, highlighting their shared interests with the monarch, such as the environment and sustainability.
Tickets are available at www.rct.uk and +44 (0)303 123 7300.
