The Queen: Australian artist Ralph Heimans recalls painting the Diamond Jubilee portrait

The Australian-born artist who painted the Queen’s acclaimed Diamond Jubilee portrait recalled he was instructed to ask Her Majesty: ‘May I take control now ma’am?’.

Ralph Heimans, from Sydney who now lives in South London with his wife and daughters, explained he was allowed a one-hour sitting with the Queen at Buckingham Palace after he was asked to paint her portrait in 2012.

Mr Heimans explained that palace staff told him to use the ‘remarkable’ phrase ‘the moment you begin the sitting’.

‘I could not believe that’s what I had to say and, in the moment, I couldn’t bring myself to say those words. It’s like saying “Can I take control of the country?”,’ he told The Project in a segment airing Tuesday. 

Artist Ralph Heimans (pictured) said he thinks the painting ‘has more resonance now that it did in the moment’

He added that he was told the Queen would stand for some but not all of the sitting, held in the palace’s yellow drawing room, and that there was ‘significant discussion’ about what the Queen would wear with palace staff but that she was ‘running the show’. 

He said the Queen chose the Robe of State to wear which weighed so much that four people were needed to help carry it in.

‘I wanted to paint the Queen in an introspective mood but it’s a bit difficult to explain that you would like her to look a little bit sombre.’

‘I found there was some resistance from palace staff on the day and the Queen’s dresser was quite adamant she should be looking up and looking quite cheery.’

The painting titled ‘The Coronation Theatre’ is the largest official portrait of Her Majesty  

‘It’s twice as big as anything I’d tackled before but the scale is relevant for the impact of the work… I wanted the viewer to feel as though they were standing in the presence of the Queen, to get that sense they were right before her.’

‘She has this extraordinary aura.’

‘It’s a little bit hard to see behind the mask but what I was impressed by was this sense of humility that she had and that really did inform the painting.’

Given a timeframe of six months from the sitting to the unveiling he said he worked 20 hour days. 

‘If you take an X-ray to my painting you’ll see there are many different ideas I tried out and painted over… it was a real wrestle with the canvas.’

Mr Heimans said the Queen does not comment on portraits but he was since commissioned to paint Prince Philip and Prince Charles, now King Charles III, which he took as positive feedback

The setting for the painting is the historical coronation site at Westminster Abbey, where the portrait now resides, with Mr Heimans given two nights alone in the famous church.

‘It’s set where she was crowned on this central circle on the Cosmati Pavement, which is this incredible mosaic on the high alter where the throne is placed,’ he said.

‘The crown aligns with this central circle on the ground to give the monarch divine power. It’s the epicentre of the British monarchy.’

He added it was an ‘imagined moment’ combining the sitting and the Abbey because ‘you never see the Queen alone in public’.

Three weeks after the portrait was unveiled, it was vandalised by someone sneaking a spray can inside the Abbey in their coat and writing the word ‘help’ before they were tackled to the ground ‘in a dramatic fashion.’

‘The p ran off the edge of the canvas’.

Restorers worked for five weeks swabbing the paint with cotton buds to removed the marks with Mr Heimans then doing touch up painting to bring the portrait back to it’s original state.  

Mr Heimans said although the Queen does not comment on portraits he was commissioned to paint Prince Philip in 2017 and Prince Charles, now King Charles III, in 2018, so he took that as positive feedback. 

‘I found Charles to be an incredible person, very thoughtful, I think he will make a great King actually.’