1956-08-11 — Page 7

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, AUGUST

$1956.

Concluding the remarkable memoirs of ANNIGONI, painter of the Queen

YOU have read in this series the unequalled story of how Annigoni --- the vir- tually unknown painter from Florence-made his way to Britain, fought for recogni- tion in the galleries of Bond Street, won commissions to paint BOMO of society's leading beauties and finally triumphed with his portrait of the Queen. What now? — What doca he seek, this

who has fame, wealth, famous friends? He seeks still what all great painters seek: the haunting face that is a challenge to paint. Of such faces he knows-and he names them now to the man who has told his story here, the friend he has

the right: sketched DAVID WYNNE-MORGAN

P

on

the women

man

THIS

IS THE WOMAN

I LONG

ΤΟ PAINT

IETRO ANNIGONI black hair and her perfectly promised to give me shaped face but she has far more than that. There is a of the names

most depth to her expression and he

a mystery, almost a sadness in her eyes which, if I could capture to my own satistac- tion, would happy man."

wanted to paint.

But as he stood sketching In his Kensington studio he confessed: It is all so very difficult.

"There

are four

women

com-

whom I want to paint-one is on the secret list because negotiations for the mission are already under way, one I have never seen, one I have seen only once for a few seconds.

"The lust I have painted countless times, but her face constant still represents a challenge to me.

make

'My ideal'

Steel). She has posed for many of my allegorical paintings. I have sketched her many times ut her expressive face always looks different. I feel she stili Inspires me to produce my best work."

What of the mystery woman? 1 probed. "For the moment she nusi remain a mystery," he pied, "Bul I paint her it will be the most exeiling com- mission of my life."

I agree

FINALLY, the hitherto untold

FINAL

story or huw Annigoni nearly refused to finish ha portrait of the Queen can be told for the first time.

the

com-

He had accepted mision to paint the Queen wiih- out hesitating. He knew it was an opportunity that could place him in the forefront of

A world's me

woman

the

advice, but was told that in any court of low here he would stand no chance.

SORAYA...

This was not the end of the "THE ONE WOMAN dispute. Hitherto

had WHOSE FACE

been confined to letters between Anmigoni and the Fishmonger

tt Company. Now flared openly.

nover

up

"It was

HAUNTS ME..........

Anndgoni has completed for the portrait of the Duke of Edin- burgh. He is to paint hân in the green robes of the Order of the Thistle, posed so that when the portrait is finally hung in the Fishmongers Hall

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he will be Chinese Croods & Customs Vol. I facing that of the Queen.

In the finished drawing of the Chinese Creads & Customs Vol. II

hoad

as the people know him: mas-

he seemed to me to have | Enjoyable Cookery captured the Duke of Edinburgh Baby Book

Her

told me: Annigoni

question of money. The Queen was most upset,

of pri- but not although 19 u matter

with Annigoni. ciple I thought it was complete private secretary, Colonel Char ly wrong that they should be

teris. Immediately got in contact with he Fishmongers Company and pointed out that the Queen was extremely annoyed about such a public row,

able to make far more money

out of the copyright than they had paid me for palating The portrait.

"For more important to me was complete control over al the reproductions to ensure that only the inest copies should be made,

He said she had agreed to pose for the portrait as a matter of courtesy to the Company

Fishmongers and that any dispute they might have with the artist was no concern of hers.

Settled

"I was also fighting for my fellow artists I found out loo late that legally I was in the the wrong but morally 1 was, and * ALS still am, convinced 1 was right, was This was a trial case and was situation that any artist might have to face. I received active THE following support from many of them in the dispute.“

A

artiste. Nothing signed, no contract drawn up. He simply wrote letter agreeing to paint the port- ralt and accepted without ques- tion the fee of £2,000.

From the start everything went smoothly. Officials of the Fishmongers Company saw the preuminary sketenes and even went, occasionally, to Bucking- ham Palace to see how the portrait was progressing.

There was no hint of trouble untill Annigon! discovered they

Upset

IT was the day after this that I can remember situng talking to him as he leaned on hle silver-topped cane in the first-

vei

day A nervous Annigoni had an- other sliting with the Qucen and he avont to the Palace In fear of what she was going to say to him. In fact, shế hardly mentioned it,

All she sold was: "I hope this will all be cleared up and will

not happen again, but I do not want you to be deprived of what you believe to be right."

were making plans to release the floor sitting-room of his furnish 24 hours and while

ND

what of the whose name he does not know? He smiled

little "She is my ideal but I sadly. saw her only once in a

cotton skirt and sniple white blouse in a little Italian mountain village behind Forte dei Marmi where Michelangelo quarried the stone for his masterpiece,

painting to the Press and to " WIES

was on one of my annual handle reproduction of the por- walking holidays when I trait themselves, suddenly གང་ this fair-haired peasant girl

barefoot Fun through the crowded street and disappear behind a baker's shop. 1 see her in a newspaper or Her simple beauty so astonished magazine is Queen Soraya, me that by the time I decided of the Shah of to follow her she was nowhere the wife Persia. Even in photographs to be found.

*The one woman whose face haunts me every time

The dispute was settled in

the Fish-

ed flut in Kensington, Just after he had returned from one of mongers Company kept all the bla last sittings with the Queen. rights of the British Common- "All right,” he told me with wealth Annigoni was given them He wrote to Colonel Stirling.

a smile.

and "I am legally in the for the rest of the world. head of the Fishmongers Com- wrong, but remember that I am

am also the right to supervise ali pointing ou! that ho pany,

the only one who can say when the reproductions. reserved the right to the copy-

the portrait is Anished and

The dispute which threatened right of the painting himself.

could be that there will be some the Queen's greatest portrait The Fishmongers Company Co

small piece of detall on the was finally settled amicably, It replied that the copyright of B Queen's dress that I could not had been caused only by the of some

the painting belongs not to the git quite right and I could difference between English and bu. une knew her artist but to whoever had com-

15 Italian low which nobody

had take me ve, 10, or even I have

ii, retumed missioned

and they must

years to finish it."

noticed beforehand. Only a few to to that village several times in insist on their rights.

The bare tacts were published weeks later he was commission- the hope of seeing her again 1 But under Italian law the the following day under the ed to paint the Duke of Edin- have never been lucky.

copyright of any painting always headline

the Queen's burgh over

by

Fishmongers "The model that I never tire resta with the artist, Too late portrait," but this was nothing Company,

Annigoni discovered that English to the row that went on in WAS the first person to sce low was different. He took legal secret behind the scenes,

preliminary sketches

"1 questioned passersby,

although to and

1 seem to see her looking at me challenging me convey her beauty

canvas.

on

"She has a conventional of painting is Juanita Forbes beauty with her shining (the first wife of Anthony

"Row

FIVE GOURMETS MEET

FOR DINNER

„and decide that no one can succeed their *prince'

A

TOW that Curnonsky is food as

whose opinion Is frequently small tambourin hat in the samo

N

dead who will wear sought on both.

The

Richard Bone of

Groen, Ewell, Surrey, who has a 10- roomed house at Versailles to himself.

French friends gave him open invitation but coincided with holidays in Brittany

all

on

his visit

their

summer

they

left the keys for him.

OS

Paris. as much about good wine and Scallops marking the wirlst

Frenchman 'and will any

give a bolero effect,

"It is like a Jean

Coctenu material will match the dress,

stage setting," he says. There the mantle of No. 1 Most Frenchwomen are ex- At the reception she will wear is a hugo salon, a grand piano dress in white but no stool. In the kitchen Gourmet? No one. But the cellent cooks. But it is unusual a contrasting

to have organza with a very full skirt there is one smati gastronomical dictatorship equal statue with men as a food and embroidered with illics of With that I cook. of France passes into the authority.

the valley. Mile Decure, a lively brunette, hands of five people who are now the arbiters of what is has been with the "prince" at marrying. 42-year-old good to eat.

for

They have decided that there can be no one succes- sor to the "prince." They will dine together next Oc- tober 12, his birthday, to toast his memory. There many will be a vacant seat at the dinner.

Frenchwoman

saucepan

Francoise, who

is

"There is a vast central heat- 25, is Georges ing boller In the cellar which would need a ton of cont 10 start up, but the water heater in

PARIS NEWSLETTER

by WILLIAM ROLAND

the

GEORGES CRAVENNE, Marius Francolas Arsoal ĮSIE FRANCOISE MARKIIS)

There I met the only cricket. playing Frenchman-48-year-old

tha bathroom in almost Henri Natanson, secretary of a

medieval."

British charitable fund in Paris,

Bona has just graduated at "I love cricket," he told me, Manchester University in politics "though I am too old to learn and modern history, thought he any strokes of my own" would visit Paris before his mo

in

in

dinners. "I learned Pennine, a publicity agent

business. "They have. everything I know from him," show sho says, "ho was a bachelor, known each other for years, do

during married nad ho called me his little clded to got

last year's Alm Testival, at adopted daughter,

Cannes.

bed-alltor.

Hus M. Natanson tried to

call-up, In Manchester he lived interest other. Frenchmen in the game? Not since he brought 'one' up to, watch, a match, After „Hush-hush París

some time': his: - friend granici LEARNING BOA hog "What are the two grocera, in Two moves in the Paris anti- the white coate doing out Tommy the Pas one

Who are the fivo? They are Marcel Grancher, 60 years old, She hopes soon to visit Lon- Neither has becní, married, be- with 20 books, many on gas- don for the first time. She is fore. The 500 guests will include Genebrier, the Prefect of Police, tronomy to his credit, including very curious about lo steak Maurice Chevalier, Michele is to make silencers compu Firty Yokra At Table; Simon pudding,t

Morgan, Brigitte Bardot, on motorcycles. A portable sim Michelino Preae, and Gina "Taxi Wanted," lit up at nigh

Arbellot, cge 82. a member of age

the

Acadernie des Gastrononce

Like the French,

Francoise, marries {

do, Francolso has just is"-being adopted by

"making" Paris Palace restaurant doorkeepery. by kune keni Hotel" with: Charles Boyer,:: her

ef Academie, des Pay

du Clout and Robert Paris suburt-haired

sycho- Hall of Louveciennes, hear in Ischia, Kady, she will go back

derm, to film making, www

Briller to 4-year-old · memTOR UT wedding at the Town 26th: film, "After a Honeymoon,

Arkinatogul

"atur: Fei

there??

Quotes of the week

WRITER Blaise. Cendrors who ls of Swine origin: I might and live in Switzerla

I have Bouncy

culine, dignified, but with more This is Hong Kong century buccaneer. than a touch of the twentieth-The Hongkong Countryside (Herklots)

I know that the completed Hongkong Birds (Merklots! critics will attack picture will be one that the Coronation Glory

Just as they King George VI

did his portrait of the Queen.

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but Annigoni has never painted It's Fun Finding Out --- 2nd sories for the intelligentsia.

(Bernard Wicksteed)

"Art belongs to the people,"

"It must be Rupert Adventure Book he once told me. something they can all under-Rupert Magazinos

appreciate,

stand

and

There

500

was once a

a time when painting Stamp Albums carried a message for everyone. Ten Points About Pearls when it was a reflection and an Points on judging jade integral part of our everyday

Lives. That is what I am trying [Outlina Rellef Map of China to recapture."

If he succeeds he will ask no ther epitaph than this,

(COPYRIGHT)

THE END

"

109

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