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Michael Noakes is best known for his naturalistic and honest portraits of the Royal Family, particularly those produced in the 1970s.
This intimate oil study depicts Queen Elizabeth II wearing the robes of the Order of the British Empire in three-quarter length. Noakes has captured the suggestion of his sitter’s smile, which offers a glimpse of informality amongst the otherwise stately presentation. Relating to Noakes’ full-length portrait Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (b.1926) currently in the collection of Manchester Town Hall [fig. 1], this spirited study offers a glimpse into the procedure and practise of sitting for stately portraits. By this date, Noakes had gained sittings with numerous members of the Royal Family including the Prince of Wales, the Queen Mother, the Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Margaret and the Princess Royal and became a highly dependable and much-loved artist by the Royal Household. Noakes became so trusted by Her Majesty that in 1999 he and his wife, Vivian, accompanied the...
Michael Noakes is best known for his naturalistic and honest portraits of the Royal Family, particularly those produced in the 1970s.
This intimate oil study depicts Queen Elizabeth II wearing the robes of the Order of the British Empire in three-quarter length. Noakes has captured the suggestion of his sitter’s smile, which offers a glimpse of informality amongst the otherwise stately presentation. Relating to Noakes’ full-length portrait Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (b.1926) currently in the collection of Manchester Town Hall [fig. 1], this spirited study offers a glimpse into the procedure and practise of sitting for stately portraits. By this date, Noakes had gained sittings with numerous members of the Royal Family including the Prince of Wales, the Queen Mother, the Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Margaret and the Princess Royal and became a highly dependable and much-loved artist by the Royal Household. Noakes became so trusted by Her Majesty that in 1999 he and his wife, Vivian, accompanied the Queen for an entire year, observing her working life and recording it in words and pictures which culminated in the publication of The Daily Life of The Queen: An Artist's Diary.
Whilst most artists who are offered a life sitting with the Queen have the privilege of spending the standard hour and a half with her, throughout his career Noakes spent more than twenty hours in total with Her Majesty. During this time, an intimate relationship formed between artist and sitter, placing Noakes in a position whereby he could, more truthfully than most, exhume the complex character of his sitter.
Noakes intricately intertwines Elizabeth II’s official position with that of her compassion and humanity. Even whilst dressed in the Mantle of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Noakes captures The Queen’s welcoming nature. Designed by the British fashion designer Marion Foale, the Queen’s mantle of the Order of the British Empire was made by the royal robe makers, Ede and Ravenscroft, in rose pink satin lined with pearl grey silk. Foale designed the robes whilst she was still a student at the Royal College of Art.[1]
[1] ‘Mantle of the Order of The British Empire’, Royal Collection Trust. Available at: https://www.rct.uk/collection/themes/exhibitions/fashioning-a-reign/buckingham-palace/robes-of-the-order-of-the-british-empire (Accessed: 16 June 2022).
