Thatcher finds a permanent home at No 10: First look at the £100,000 portrait Brown ordered as a lasting tribute
A portrait of Margaret Thatcher, commissioned by Gordon Brown as his personal tribute to her achievements, is to be unveiled in Downing Street next month.
The stunning work by Richard Stone, one of the world’s leading portrait artists, is revealed for the first time today by The Mail on Sunday.
The painting, which is not yet finished, depicts the Iron Lady at the height of her powers just after the Falklands War in 1982.
Mr Brown told Lady Thatcher he intended to commission the painting when he invited her to tea at No10 in September 2007, shortly after he succeeded Tony Blair. She told him she was ‘honoured’.
The portrait is to be hung in perpetuity in her former No10 study, unofficially known as the Thatcher Room, which Mr Brown uses for meetings with foreign dignitaries.
It is the first painting of a former Prime Minister ever to be commissioned by Downing Street. Even more remarkably, it will be the only painting of any Prime Minister in No10.
Photographs – or photographs of prints – of all former Prime Ministers are hung on the staircase, but there are no original paintings of any of them in the building.
Mr Brown’s decision to commission the £100,000 painting has provoked an angry Labour backlash. One Left-wing MP said last night that the move defied belief...
Read entire article at Mail (UK)
The stunning work by Richard Stone, one of the world’s leading portrait artists, is revealed for the first time today by The Mail on Sunday.
The painting, which is not yet finished, depicts the Iron Lady at the height of her powers just after the Falklands War in 1982.
Mr Brown told Lady Thatcher he intended to commission the painting when he invited her to tea at No10 in September 2007, shortly after he succeeded Tony Blair. She told him she was ‘honoured’.
The portrait is to be hung in perpetuity in her former No10 study, unofficially known as the Thatcher Room, which Mr Brown uses for meetings with foreign dignitaries.
It is the first painting of a former Prime Minister ever to be commissioned by Downing Street. Even more remarkably, it will be the only painting of any Prime Minister in No10.
Photographs – or photographs of prints – of all former Prime Ministers are hung on the staircase, but there are no original paintings of any of them in the building.
Mr Brown’s decision to commission the £100,000 painting has provoked an angry Labour backlash. One Left-wing MP said last night that the move defied belief...