Artist’s pride at portrait of King

A PORTRAIT of the King by a Henley artist is to be hung at Clarence House.

Bill Mundy took about 100 hours to complete the 30in by 28in picture of Charles III.

It shows the King smiling while dressed in his coronation robes and crown.

Mr Mundy, 88, of Wargrave Road, sent a photograph of the painting to Queen Camilla who was said to have liked it so much that she asked for the original.

He obliged and has since learned that it will be hung at the couple’s London residence.

Mr Mundy, who has previously painted other royals, said: “I wrote to her asking if she would like to have it and she was delighted. I found a very nice box for it and sent it to Buckingham Palace, where they kept it for a few days while they searched it, and then it was given to her at Clarence House.”

The Queen sent him a letter of thanks, saying she was considering the best position for the portrait.

Mr Mundy created the watercolour using stippling, a technique involving painting small dots to build up the image.

“In the crown, for example, every single jewel has been done in great detail,” he said. “I wanted to make sure that I got the correct crown because during the coronation he wears two crowns — one to be crowned in and the other one to wear afterwards, which is what I painted.

“I watched the coronation and thought the King looked apprehensive as it was his biggest event ever and he did not smile at all really, so I wanted to paint him wearing the crown and smiling.”

The painting is one of many royal portraits that will feature in the artist’s forthcoming book, Biscuit Tins to Buckingham Palace, which chronicles his life from designing biscuit tins as an apprentice to becoming a highly sought-after miniature and portrait artist.

His other paintings of royals include a miniature of Prince Charles in his garter robes which is on display at Birkhall in Aberdeenshire.

Mr Mundy was also commissioned to paint a picture of the late Duke of Edinburgh to mark his 90th birthday.

He included in the background a stained-glass window that features in the private chapel at Windsor Castle, which Prince Philip had designed.

The window includes a reference to the fire at Windsor Castle in 1992 which destroyed 115 rooms.

Mr Mundy said: “It has got things like the firefighters in it and pictures being taken from one place to another.

“I was invited to Windsor and had dinner with a big crowd of people where I presented the painting to Prince Philip and now it is part of the Royal Collection.”

He was also commissioned by Perpetual founder Sir Martyn Arbib to paint a picture of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s favourite horse, which he presented to her when she came to Henley for her diamond jubilee in 2012.

Mr Mundy, who grew up in Wokingham, first started painting when he was about five years old. He became an apprentice lithographic artist at tin makers Huntley, Boorne and Stevens in Reading.

During his national service, Mr Mundy was posted to Singapore with the Royal Engineers where he drew maps during the Malayan Emergency.

Following his national service he finished his apprenticeship before returning to Singapore in 1960, to work as a creative director for an advertising agency.

He later became regional director for the American agency Grant and travelled extensively in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan, Taiwan, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Singapore.

When he was not at work, Mr Mundy began painting miniatures. He recalled: “I used to keep all the little brushes and everything with me when I travelled. If I was stuck in a hotel for a weekend I would get out my brushes and paint miniatures.”

The Sultan of Johor in Malaysia heard of his talents and commissioned him to paint miniatures of himself and two of his Sultanas.

Mr Mundy later returned to the UK to work as a full-time painter and he still receives commissions for portraits of royal family members across Asia. He estimates he has painted around 800 miniatures to date and his book will feature more than 600 of his paintings and drawings.

Mr Mundy recounts the time he painted Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, daughter of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand. The princess gave him a photograph of herself in a red military uniform to use as reference. It was planned that he would bring the portrait with him when he returned to Thailand about six months later. However, a couple of weeks before his visit to Bangkok, a friend rang him and said that the Princess had lost a great deal of weight so that his miniature could embarrass her. Mr Mundy called the King’s secretary who sent him photographs of the new, slimmer Princess and he quickly painted a second miniature. When he presented both paintings to the Princess, she turned to her ladies-in-waiting and, in front of the TV cameras, said: “Look — before and after.”

Mr Mundy, who paints for about eight hours a day, hopes the book will be finished by the end of this year.