Mary's portrait stirs debate

Reaction to the Ralph Heimans painting has been mixed in various circles. Some seem to like it, while others are not so sure it represents Mary so well. Many agree it is a departure from conventional royal portraiture, which is met more by the Jiawei Shen portrait than by the Ralph Heimans. That is one issue. The other is how Mary is portrayed, with some suggestions we have still to see a portrait which shows her characteristics by looking more 'inside' the subject. To our readers, thank you for your comments, we are happy to receive more so you can share your own different responses.

The Sydney Morning Herald art critic John McDonald wrote:
IS PRINCESS MARY turning her back on Australia, or on the world of padded luxury one associates with the royal lifestyle? There will be a lot of debate about the symbolism of Ralph Heimans's portrait, regardless of any explanations from the artist.
I'm looking at a reproduction, so I can only comment on the quality of the image, not the actual painting. That image, however, is a fascinating, enigmatic one.
Not only is the painting free of the pomp and ceremony one finds in so many official portraits, it shows a kind of disdain for the palatial environment. Princess Mary is half in shadows, like a character in a film noir. She has one glove on, and one off. She is dressed in a demure brown suit, in a room filled with rich furnishings and decorations.
It could be argued that by turning her back on the mirror, Mary shows us she is untouched by her newfound celebrity. She remains, at heart, a straightforward Aussie girl.
On the other hand, if Heimans had called the picture "Homesickness", or "A Study in Alienation", it would be just as credible. Even the fact that Mary is standing rather than sitting suggests that she is less than comfortable in this ornate and artificial setting.
Over the centuries most artists have depicted royal figures as though they were sources of radiant light. By contrast, Ralph Heimans's portrait of Mary is a study in ambiguity, a symphony in shadows.

Meanwhile Sydney's The Sun Herald reports:
Portrait reveals Mary, princess who left her Aussie life behind

Past and present: Princess Mary and artist Ralph Heimans at the unveiling of her first official portrait, in Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark.
Photo: AP

By Rachel Browne and AAP
April 9, 2006

SHE rose from obscurity to become one of Australia's most recognisable women, but the first official portrait of Crown Princess Mary of Denmark says more about her private life than her public profile.
That was the verdict from artists and critics as Princess Mary's portrait was unveiled in Denmark yesterday.
The oil on canvas, which stands at 2.5 metres by 1.75 metres, was painted by Australian-born, Paris-based artist Ralph Heimans. It depicts the princess surrounded by the opulence of the 17th-century Frederiksborg Castle, north of Copenhagen, but turning away and staring wistfully into the middle distance.
While the princess has not offered a public opinion about her portrait, she thanked Heimans as she unveiled the painting in a ceremony at the castle.
She pulled a rope to remove a white cloth covering the painting, which reflects a second picture of the harbour in Hobart, alluding to the life she turned her back on as an Australian commoner to become a princess through marriage with Denmark's Crown Prince Frederik.
Former Archibald Prize winner Wendy Sharpe said the Heimans painting departed from the traditional formula for royal portraiture to illustrate Princess Mary's journey from a suburban upbringing in Hobart to her place in Europe's oldest monarchy.
"It's quite unorthodox. She is looking away from us - she is off to one side and we can actually see three images of her: her front, her back reflected in the mirror and her shadow," Sharpe said. "It makes you wonder what she is looking at. What is she thinking about? Her future? her past?"
An art dealer and author of How To Buy And Sell Art, Michael Reid, said the depiction of Hobart's Constitution Dock was clever.
"I think it reflects where she is now and where she has come from," he said. "Here she is, in this marvellous palace surrounded by all this baroque furniture and the trappings of royalty, and yet in the background you can clearly see Constitution Dock.
"It's quite an emotional portrait. If you look at the expression on her face, she has this distant stare - as if she is contemplating her past."
The painting was commissioned by the Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Castle, and Heimans began work on in May last year.
It will be part of the museum's temporary exhibition, Australian Visits. After the unveiling, Princess Mary walked through the exhibition, which displays 50 portraits of famous Australians including Nicole Kidman, Cathy Freeman, Kylie Minogue, Nick Cave, Dame Edna and the late Errol Flynn.
When the exhibition ends on July 31, Heimans's portrait will remain at the Dutch Renaissance castle.
What the experts say
John McDonald, art critic: "Very ambiguous. You would expect
something much more formal but Heimans has tried to make her look
like an average girl."
Michael Mucci, 2006 Archibald Packing Room Prize winner: "The artist has really pushed the boundaries of traditional royal portraiture. It's quite multi-layered."
Wendy Sharpe, 1996 Archibald Prize winner: "Not the way you see royalty normally depicted. It tells an entire narrative about where she has come from." From: The Sun Herald

Some views of the exhibition, which includes the garments Mary wore for each of the portraits:

Links:
Archibald Prize 2006
Frederiksborg National History Museum

Portrait of Mary: the first reactions

Right, this is Constitution Dock in Hobart, which makes up part of the background of the painting [added: it appears the reports Constitution Dock are in the back ground are untrue].

The Sydney Morning Herald says:
The princess and the little scallywag

Her Serenity … the official portrait of Princess Mary painted by Ralph Heimans; inset, one of the early drawings he gave to his former babysitter Marjorie Green

By Sunanda Creagh
April 8, 2006

WITH three works in the National Portrait Gallery, Ralph Heimans is one of Australia's premier portrait artists. So it was no great surprise when he was selected to paint the first official royal portrait of Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.
But in a little unit in Cammeray, Marjorie Green, 88, proudly displays some rare early Heimans works - childhood drawings by the artist as a bub.
"I have known him all his life and babysat him since he was born," Miss Green said yesterday. "The royal couple love him, and he certainly is brilliant. I have lots of drawings and paintings that he did when he was a little boy.
"He drew funny pictures of me when he was only about 12. He knew that I had never been a drinker but that I liked a drop of brandy in dry ginger ale.
"He drew a picture of me sitting on the floor with empty bottles all around me, my face all crooked and my glasses on sideways.
"I don't see him very often but if he does come to Sydney he's managed to pop in to see Aunty Marj."
Back in Denmark the artist's voice lights up at the mention of his old babysitter.
"I will definitely visit her. I always visit Aunty Marj," he said yesterday from Frederiksborg Castle, where his portrait of Princess Mary was to have been unveiled at the castle's Museum of National History last night.
The 35-year-old Paris-based artist began working on the portrait in May.
Early on, he decided on some rules: no tiara, no polite pose and no sash. "The princess is young and vibrant, so an informal and fresh portrait is befitting," he said.
Not that the princess is looking anything less than composed: standing in the room where her engagement to Crown Prince Frederik was announced, Mary is pictured slipping on some gloves, looking thoughtfully out a window before she leaves the palace. In the foreground is a painting of Constitution Dock in her home city, Hobart.
As usual, she is looking graceful and poised. This is the informal Mary?
Yes, Heimans said. She really is like that. "She has this sense of dignity which she has in real life but it's not an overbearing dignity. Getting a sense of her personality and her spirit through the painting is always the challenge; that's something you don't normally see in royal portraiture."
Heimans met Mary many times during the course of the portrait, sketching her before, during and after her pregnancy. He said she was "the ideal sitter".
"She was great, extremely patient and co-operative and interested in the ideas," he said, adding that the royals let him take creative control.
"Frederik and Princess Mary took a background role. Frederik really just popped in at the end to have a look at the painting, although I met him on several occasions."
His portrait will form part of an exhibition at Frederiksborg Castle called Australian Visit, featuring 50 works on loan from the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.


The Australian says:
Home's not far away in portrait of Princess Mary

Peter Wilson, Europe correspondent
April 8, 2006

IS she thinking of home in Australia or bracing herself for her next appointment as a busy Danish princess?
Princess Mary gazes out the window of a Danish palace in her new official portrait, caught in a moment of reflection on her own extraordinary journey from modern Hobart girl to being the stylish new face of one of the world's oldest royal families.
On the wall behind her is a painting of Hobart's Constitution Dock, a touch of creative licence by Australian painter Ralph Heimans, meant to symbolise her Tasmanian background.
"I don't think the look on her face is being wistful about her past, it's more her reflecting on the changes she's been through and what lies ahead of her," Heimans said last night in Copenhagen, where the princess officially unveiled the portrait.
"She is in a Danish palace putting her gloves on to go out into the public eye and we are invited to think what she might be thinking at this point. I was trying to empathise with her as a person."
The portrait shows the former Mary Donaldson in a classically elegant Danish-designed outfit. The setting for the portrait is the nearby Fredensborg Palace, Mary and Crown Prince Frederick's home.
But Heimans, a 35-year-old who works mainly in Paris, reinvented the room for his own creation, imagining the Hobart painting where Venetian landscapes are actually displayed.
"I have also added a mirror to give it quite a confusing spatial effect, which I think produces a sort of dreamlike, surreal quality.
"I was trying to create a narrative and show something of her life with a sense of transition between her old world and her new world."


The Age in Melbourne says:
Portrait captures Mary's tones of home

By Sunanda Creagh and Chris Lines
April 8, 2006

WHEN Australian artist Ralph Heimans was asked to paint the first official royal portrait of Denmark's Crown Princess Mary, he quickly decided on some ground rules.
There would be no tiara, no polite pose and no sash. "The Princess is young and vibrant, so an informal and fresh portrait is befitting," said Mr Heimans, 35, a renowned portrait painter now based in Paris.
He began working on the portrait in May and has been back to Denmark several times to finish the work. It was unveiled last night at Frederiksborg Castle's Museum of Natural History where it will join portraits of figures in Danish history stretching back to the 15th century.
Mary is pictured standing in the Garden Room of the Fredensborg Palace where her engagement to Crown Prince Frederik was announced. She is slipping on gloves, looking thoughtfully out a window before she leaves the palace.
In the foreground is a painting of Constitution Dock in her home city, Hobart. In a mirror, there is a reflection of the Danish flag.
"In this way, the painting represents the Crown Princess on the brink between the old life and the new, the known territory and the unknown," said a statement by the museum.
Museum director Mette Skougaard said the intention was not so much an official portrait, but a more personal study of her history and background.
"There is a royal framework and a royal setting, and traces of Mary's history in Australia." she said.
As usual, the Princess is looking graceful and poised in the painting. Is this the informal Mary? Yes, says Heimans. She really is like that.
"She has this sense of dignity which she has in real life, but it's not an overbearing dignity. Getting a sense of her personality and her spirit through the painting is always the challenge; that's something you don't normally see in royal portraiture."
Princess Mary was consulted about the choice of artist, as was the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.
Heimans sketched Mary before, during and after her pregnancy. He said she was "the ideal sitter". "She was great, extremely patient and co-operative and interested in the ideas.
"Frederik and Princess Mary took a background role. Frederik really just popped in at the end to have a look at the painting, although I met him on several occasions."...

Landscape view gives Mary a stately shadow
AUSTRALIAN portrait painter Ralph Heimans is a globe-trotting jobbing painter, and now one with a royal warrant from Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.
Heimans has tempered his interest in classical themes and lurid nudes to produce a compositionally clever, dramatically lit portrait.
But what are we to read into the princess' stiffened pose and thrown-back head as she contemplates something out of frame?
Is she keeping a weather eye on things in Denmark?
Heimans' biggest innovation has been to use a landscape rather than a vertical format. By posing Mary to the right of frame, lit by soft light, either early-morning or late-evening sun, she throws a long shadow — and who would deny that she has come a long way?
Penny Webb is an art reviewer for The Age


And from Mary's hometown The Hobart Mercury says:
Mirror image of Mary's past

By Fiona Hudson
April 8, 2006

IT is as much a puzzle as a portrait.
Viewers who look closely at the first official painting of Denmark's Crown Princess Mary will find a series of clues from the painter intended to keep you guessing.
Sydney-born artist Ralph Heimans altered reality to fuse Princess Mary's past and present in the giant oil-on-canvas work.
She posed in the Garden Room of Copenhagen's Fredensborg Palace, but a mirror behind her shows a hazy vision of Hobart's Constitution Dock. A dream-like flag reflected on the roof hints at her Danish ties, and she appears deep in thought as she puts on her gloves to go outside.
"In a way the painting represents the Crown Princess on the brink between the old life and the new," Heimans said last night. "She is about to leave the palace and is standing there reflecting as she heads into the public realm.
"The viewer is invited to imagine what she might be thinking."
Though the Princess was pregnant during sittings, Heimans said the piece was always intended to show Mary on her own and there was no thought of including her pregnant belly or the child.
"It's very different to other royal portraits. There's no tiara or sash she's just really young and fresh. It's her as she is in real life," he said.
"She was so warm and easygoing. We had an easy rapport because of our common Australian background. There' s a lot of buzz about the painting in Denmark; people are very excited to see it. I don't know what the critics will say yet."
The most important critics -- the Princess and her husband Crown Prince Frederik -- seemed thrilled with it, he said.
Paris-based Heimans, who started work on the portrait in February 2005, said he usually considered a portrait a triumph if the sitter walked away smiling after the first peek at the finished work. He confirmed: "Yes, she was smiling."
Prince Frederik also wore a huge grin.
"There was no one to whom the portrait probably mattered more," Heimans said...

Also, similar information in Danish in B.T., DR.dk, and on the TV2 site.

We will bring you more reactions and photos as they come along. You might like to drop us a line about what you think of the portrait and we can publish a snapshot of your views.

First look at Crown Princess Mary's portrait

Excerpt from the National History Museum's press release:

It was the expressed wish of the museum that the portrait was not to be a typical official portrait, but a more personal characterization of the new member of the Danish Royal Family.

Since his first sitting with the Crown Princess in May 2005, Heimans has been working intensively on the portrait and has repeatedly visited Denmark. The result is a resounding success: a work that fuses the Crown Princess’ present day situation with her Australian heritage.

The Princess is seen in the Garden Room of Fredensborg Palace, where Lauritz Tuxen more than 100 years ago painted King Christian IX Danish and his extensive Pan-European family. She is getting ready to leave the palace - her coat lies at the ready over a chair, and she is putting on her gloves. She gazes pensively at something we cannot see. The room around her is multifaceted and labyrinthine: It is reflected outwards and inwards in the great mirrors that Heimans has replaced the room’s actual landscape paintings with. In the mirror behind Mary, a glimpse of Hobart can be seen, and in another mirror, a reflection of the Danish flag can be detected in the ceiling. In this way, the painting represents the Crown Princess on the brink between the old life and the new, the known territory and the unknown. At first glance, it is difficult to find one’s bearing, but the Crown Princess seems calm and confident, ready for her challenge.

Facts about the portrait
HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, painted by Ralph Heimans 2006, oil on canvas, 175 x 250 cm.
From 8 April - 31 July the portrait is part of the special exhibition “Australian Visit”.
From the 1st of August the portrait will take its place in the Modern Collection.

For more information visit www.frederiksborgmuseet.dk




We will bring you more information and reactions!

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.

1. 2. 3.
4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 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:



(Nick Cave, Ian Thorpe, Cathy Freeman, Jørgen Jürgensen (1780-1841), (_), Gough Whitlam, Germaine Greer, Rupert Murdoch, Peter Doherty, Woureddy)


Links:
Ralph Heimans
The Copenhagen Post: Jiawei Shen
Ann Holt's Circumnavigating the Island (Tasmania)
Australske portrætter– en søgen efter national identitet
Royal Commission - Jiawei Shen
Portrait painter Jiawei Shen
Jiawei Shen portfolio
National Portrait Gallery - Portrait Features
B.T. 'Mary unveils herself' (in Danish)
Sydney Morning Herald -- 'Portrait of man on train about to paint Princess Mary'

Subject: Mary!

The Sydney Morning Herald today reports on some artistic pursuits:

Portrait of man on train about to paint Princess Mary


Chosen to paint the official Danish portrait of Princess Mary ... Australian artist Ralph Heimans as he painted himself riding on the Metro in Paris. His royal work will be taken to Copenhagen next week.

By Valerie Lawson
March 11, 2006

IN a Paris studio, the final brushstrokes have been made on Princess Mary. Next week, she will embark on a hush hush journey to Denmark.
Not the princess herself, but Denmark's first official portrait of Mary, painted by Ralph Heimans, 35, an Australian artist who lives in Paris.
During the nine months that Heimans has been travelling to Copenhagen for the sittings, there has been a total clampdown on news of the painting and preparations for the unveiling.
The Danish authorities have recently recruited Jeremy Mitchell, public affairs manager at the Australian high commission in London, to co-ordinate publicity for the event, to be held on April 7 at the Museum of National History, based in Frederiksborg Castle, near Copenhagen.
Heimans said the Danish Government wanted "everything done through diplomatic channels, through safe channels. They wanted to make sure things were controlled. This is the official portrait for Denmark".
He said that the work will be "an amazingly different sort of portrait … It's going to be exciting in that regard".
A brief mention in Danish on the Museum of National History website reveals that the portrait will be "drawing up the lines between her old and new country, and in this way, [will] underline her special background".
Heimans, who has painted Justice Michael Kirby, Tom Uren, arts benefactor Caroline Simpson and Bill Waterhouse, among many others, is a past finalist in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize.
Working on commission, he has painted a great many lawyers, among them Robert Stitt, QC. In England, he said, QCs "line up" to have their portraits painted by him. He has been commissioned by the European Court in Luxembourg, the Australian Army and the Supreme Court of NSW.
Heimans was one of a small number of Australian artists whose names were put forward to the Danish museum by Andrew Sayers, director of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. The gallery has three Heimans works in its collection.
Last year it commissioned another portrait of Princess Mary. The Sydney artist Jiawei Shen painted a lifesize, formal portrait, showing the princess in a long blue dress.
The portrait was hung in the gallery last October.
A press report of Shen's commission also briefly mentioned that Heimans was to paint Princess Mary. According to Heimans, this sent the Danish authorities into a flurry.
They decided that no further news of his portrait would appear until the publicity campaign begins, in about a week.
The Heimans portrait of Princess Mary, along with Shen's portrait, will be the focus of an exhibition called Australian Visit at Denmark's Museum of National History.
The exhibition, also opening on April 7, includes more than 50 portraits on loan from the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, among them those of Kylie Minogue, Dame Joan Sutherland, Elle Macpherson, Rupert Murdoch, Gough Whitlam, Germaine Greer, Rolf Harris and Ian Thorpe. smh.com.au




Jaiwei Shen's portrait of Mary painted last year is currently hanging at its home in the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, but it will soon make the journey to Denmark for the exhibition at the National History Museum at Frederiksborg Castle.

Links:
Ralph Heimans' homepage
Jaiwei Shen