Danish Royal Watchers

Wednesday, 4 June 2008

Mary, Christian & Amber go for a stroll for an ice cream

The summery weather in Denmark has inspired thoughts of ice cream. Yesterday Mary, Christian, Amber Petty, an unidentified friend (green dress) and Ziggy strolled down past the main gate at Fredensborg Castle to buy some ice cream cones. The ice cream kiosk is called 'Vaffelhuset' = The Cone House. An obviously delighted Christian got a cone with two chocolate scoops while both Christian and Mary showed their sun awareness by covering up. According to official meteorological information it has been the sunniest month of May on record, so anything cooling is selling well all over Denmark.

In respect of the below report in Billed Bladet, our best information from a regular listener to her radio program in Adelaide, Amber Petty is not pregnant. Apparently she stopped smoking during the past year and like many people who do this she has found she has put on weight. Petty has talked about it on her radio show and has said it has also added to her bad eating habits. Amber has spoken to her co-hosts since she has been in Denmark.

It looks like Christian has a brand new Blundstone baseball cap fresh from Australia!

Photos © Hello!/Rex, Lars Laursen/Billed Bladet

Billed Bladet has not covered itself in glory with its report that Amber Petty looks pregnant: 'Amber Pettys mave buler' - Amber Petty's stomach bulge (June 3, 2008, Preben Petersen)
Amber Petty, Mary's girlfriend of many years, showed a small, sweet bump when she walked out to buy an ice cream with Mary and little Prince Christian after the birthday party at Fredensborg Castle on the weekend...[some waffle about summer breezes]
Amber Petty was a bridesmaid at Mary's wedding and attended Prince Christian's christening. Mary and Amber maintain their friendship desptite the great distance between them.

From The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney) Petty parties on
PRINCESS Mary's bridesmaid Amber Petty flew out of her adopted town of Adelaide last week to take up one of the world's hottest invites: the 40th birthday bash for Crown Prince Frederik in Fredensborg, Denmark.
It's a relatively intimate soiree with only 150 guests, which was being held last night.
After the festivities, Petty, 37, is taking a holiday break with the royals but she will give nothing away on the destination.
Petty has sure turned her fortunes around since the Danish press were aghast after photos were printed of her with Hell's Angels at one of her former boyfriend's pubs.
Now a top-rating breakfast radio personality on SAFM, Petty was recently named in a magazine poll as the fifth-most powerful person in South Australia, influencing those aged between 13 and 18.
Still on Amber, it was published a month ago in Adelaide Now she used a local Adelaide dress designer for her party dress.

Hello! magazine 'Aussie rules as casually dressed Mary treats little Christian to ice cream'

(Thanks Muhler, FrederikIX and thanks Sissi!)

Labels: Amber Petty, Christian, Frederiksborg Castle, Mary, Ziggy

Friday, 7 April 2006

Royal portraits unveiled tomorrow

Tomorrow at the National History Museum at Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark's first official portrait of Crown Princess Mary is unveiled. It has been executed by the Australian artist Ralph Heimans, who makes links between Mary's old and new homelands in a way which accentuates her particular background.

The Heimans portrait will be the focus of an exhibition called 'Australian Visit' which includes more than 50 works on loan from the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, including the gallery's portrait of Crown Princess Mary by the Sydney artist Jiawei Shen. The exhibition also features a selection of Ralph Heimans' past commissions from London, Paris and Sydney.

The 'Australian Visit' exhibition is a collaboration between Australia's National Portrait Gallery and the Museum of National History in Denmark, which is also the National Portrait Gallery of Denmark.

The core of the exhibition is more than 50 portraits which present an engaging view of Australian achievement and personalities.

The collaboration between the two institutions began when both commissioned portraits of Crown Princess Mary for their respective collections. An Australian artist, Ralph Heimans, was chosen to execute the Danish commission, while the Chinese-born Australian Jiawei Shen made the portrait for Canberra. Both portraits provide an opportunity to compare interpretative approaches to the genre of royal portraiture. The exhibition is intended as an expression of the Danish-Australian relationship as one of many cultural exchanges in the present.

10.

11.

1. and 2. Frederiksborg Castle in Hillerød was built as a royal residence for King Christian IV, and is now The Museum of National History.
3. Ralph Heimans, the artist of the Danish commissioned portrait of Mary.
4. Jiawei Shen, the artist commissioned to paint Mary by the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra.
5. Jiawei Shen's portrait of Mary
6. 7. 8. and 9. Some studies and collages done by Jiawei Shen.
10. and 11. Some royals have already seen Jiawei Shen's work. King Carl Gustav and Queen Silvia of Sweden saw the portrait when they visited Canberra last year.

On another note, Billed-Bladet reports that Ralph Heimans has found Mary to be a wonderful subject since they met 10 months ago (last May). During that time he has made five visits to The Chancellery House at Fredensborg, where Crown Prince Frederik dropped in on proceedings to check out how things were going. Heimans says he was nervous to begin with because he hadn't painted a royal before, but Mary was so down-to-earth and charming that she put him at ease and made him feel welcome straight away. So far nothing has been revealed about the painting except that it is painted in oil and is 1.7 metres high and 2.5 metres wide.

A little preview of some of the other works in the exhibit: