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Some of Britain's most distinguished figures have been recorded by many of the country's greatest artists to mark their award of the Order of Merit.
To mark the Order's centenary, 29 drawings of Order members, badges of the Order and associated historic material from the Royal Collection and Royal Archives will be shown at Windsor Castle in a special centenary exhibition.
Soon after the Order of Merit's foundation, it was decided to commission portraits of its members. The practice ceased on the outbreak of the First World War, but was revived by Her Majesty The Queen in 1988. The Royal Collection contains over 70 of these portrait drawings, nearly 50 of which have been commissioned or presented over the past 14 years.
The selection from the early 20th century begins with Earl Kitchener, Joseph Lister, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Hardy and Edward Elgar.
One of the most striking works in the series is John Singer Sargent's charcoal portrait of novelist Henry James, which was presented by the artist to King George V in 1916, two weeks after James's death.
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Among the more recent additions to the series are Sir Tom Stoppard, Lord Foster (the architect Norman Foster), Lord Denning, Cardinal Hume, Dame Joan Sutherland and Lord Menuhin.
The artists represented include Bryan Organ, Emma Sergeant, Carel Weight, Daphne Todd, John Wonnacott and Lucian Freud, who presented his self-portrait etching to The Queen.
Material from the Royal Library and Royal Archives in the exhibition includes a letter from Florence Nightingale to Queen Victoria, the original manuscripts of Thomas Hardy's novel, The Trumpet Major, of Elgar's hymn composed for the coronation of King Edward VII and of works by the Poets Laureate John Masefield and Ted Hughes.
The display also shows books presented to King George VI and Her Majesty The Queen by President Eisenhower (an Honorary Member), Sir Winston Churchill and Baroness Thatcher.
On a very different scale is a group of miniature volumes given to the library of Queen Mary's Dolls' House by members of the Order - J.M. Barrie, Walter de la Mare, John Galsworthy and M.R. James. Although only the size of postage stamps, the volumes are hand-written and encased in exquisite tooled-leather bindings.
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The Order of Merit display forms part of an exhibition of treasures from the Royal Library, including works by Leonardo da Vinci and Holbein. Other drawings from the series are shown in the Royal Treasures exhibition at the new Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, until 16 March 2003.
These include John Merton's portrait of The Queen, Revd Professor Owen Chadwick and Graham Greene by Tom Phillips and Humphrey Ocean respectively, and Bob Tulloch's posthumous portrait of the Poet Laureate, Ted Hughes. | | |
