Passionate about painting, King Charles III painted hundreds of watercolors. If the sovereign himself recognizes that these works are not the most beautiful, some were sold dearly and brought in millions of pounds.
It is a discreet and little-known passion of King Charles III: watercolour. The sovereign has cultivated a pronounced taste for painting since his early childhood and he has produced his own works since the 1960s. After so many years of practice, Charles III is the author of nearly 700 paintings, but he assures himself have “no illusions” as to the quality of his paintings. His style, on the other hand, has asserted itself and it is the landscapes that the monarch prefers to paint.
Finding “the photo unsatisfactory”, he prefers to color his travel memories, Scottish or Welsh lands, buildings and villages of Provence through the landscapes of Romania or Tanzania. These watercolors “represent my particular form of photographic album, and as such have great significance to me”, confided King Charles III in an introductory text to his exhibition of 50 works at the Garrison Chapel in London, at the beginning of the year. year 2022. The amateur artist also described watercolor painting as “one of the most relaxing and therapeutic exercises […] that refreshes certain parts of the soul, which other activities cannot reach”.
If the watercolors of King Charles III are not the most beautiful, by the artist’s own admission, they are on display. Some exhibitions have been organized during the painter king’s birthdays, such as in 1998 and 2018 for his 50 and 70 years. And the sovereign’s paintings have found their audience since thanks to them, several million pounds – two million between 1997 and 2016 according to the royal family – have been collected and donated to charities supported by the Prince’s Foundation.
No watercolors of Charles III were sold, the proceeds came from lithographs of the watercolors put up for sale at exhibitions or permanently in certain residences of the royal family. Only one painting is an exception: a watercolor of Balmoral Castle from 2001, auctioned in October 2022 and bought for 5,737 pounds, or 6,589 euros, when it was initially estimated at 600 pounds. A surge in price due in part to the identity of the author, but also to the death of Queen Elizabeth in this Scottish residence in September 2022. This watercolor is to be viewed on the British auction site which operated the transaction . It represents the castle in a very strange representation, in an immaculate, almost ghostly white.
