Royal Family Order of King Charles III: Portrait by Elizabeth Meek MBE PPRMS

The New Royal Family Order - created for King Charles III

The new Royal Family Order, which features a miniature portrait of the Monarch, was unveiled recently and this post is about how it came about. I interviewed the Artist who created the miniature portrait the day after it became public knowledge!

This post covers:

• What is a Royal Family Order?
• What does the Order comprise - and who did what
• The Miniature Portrait painted by Elizabeth Meek.

The new King Charles III Royal Family Order was worn for the first time at a reception and State Banquet for the Japanese Emperor and his wife at Buckingham Palace.  HM Queen Camilla wore the Royal Family Orders commissioned by her husband  and the late Queen.

The Royal Family Order

To provide some context - the Royal Family Order is a decoration conferred by the monarch on female members of the British Royal Family.

• They have been created and conferred since 1820. They are usually the first honours given by the new Monarch to the female members of his or her family.
• It's usual for the colour of the ribbon used to attach it to a gown to change as the monarch changes.
• It's typically worn on State Occasions - such as State Banquets for a Visiting Head of State. 

Royal Family Orders have been given since 1820. Usually they are the first Honours awarded by a new Sovereign to Royal Ladies. 

To date, Queen Camilla is the only Royal Lady to receive one. However I think it very likely that we will see both the Princess Royal and the Princess of Wales wearing one in the near future - as both were absent due to ill health at the time of the banquet.

Copies of the miniature portrait are made to create the Royal Family Order worn by female relatives of the King.

Below, The King and Queen with The Emperor and Empress of Japan at the State Banquet at Buckingham Palace.

 

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What does the order comprise?

Creating a Royal Family Order is very much a team effort - although I'm focusing on the miniature painting which sits at the centre of the order in this post.

The Royal Family Order comprises:

• a miniature portrait of the Monarch, typically at the beginning of their reign
• a jewelled encasing which features loose jewels from the Royal Collection
• a ribbon which is used to hang the portrait and its case - and to hide the method used to attach it to the dress worn for the occasion! The colour of the ribbon can vary.

The new Royal Family Order commissioned for the female relatives of King Charles III was created by the following individuals and comprises:

• a miniature portrait by leading professional miniature portrait painter Elizabeth Meek MBE PPRMS. 
• This was based on a photograph of the monarch wearing the uniform of Admiral of the Fleet and his array of decorations taken by the official Royal Photographer Hugo Bernard at Windsor Castle in 2023. This depicts the King wearing the ceremonial day uniform of a Royal Navy Admiral of the Fleet with the collar of the Order of the Garter, the Royal Victorian Chain, the riband of the Royal Victorian Order, the badges of the Order of the Bath and Order of Merit and various medals.
• A miniature Tudor Crown sits at the top of the jewelled casing that surrounds the portrait. This includes diamonds weighing 10.41 carat - which came from loose jewels in the Royal Collection. This was created by British jewellery designer Fiona Rae Goldsmiths has been designing and making jewellery for over 34 years, after graduating from Central St Martins and receiving a business loan from the Prince's Trust. She was recently granted a Royal Warrant from HM King Charles III. 
• The enamelled reverse of the case depicts the King's cypher in gold. The case and goldwork was engineered by Seth Kennedy, a scholar from the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust.
• The casing for the portrait is suspended from a pale blue moiré silk bow created by the leading milliner Philip Treacy who makes lots of hats for the Queen.
• His Majesty personally selected the colour of the ribbon, which is based on the Family Order of his great-grandfather, King George V. 
• This marks a change from the yellow that decorated the late Queen’s Order.
• Those wearing the Royal Family Orders usually arrange them in layers on the left shoulder.

You can see an image of Queen Camilla wearing the new Royal Family Order with that created for HM Queen Elizabeth 11 in this Tatler article Queen Camilla debuts King Charles' new Family Order at Buckingham Palace: everything we know about the honour

The Miniature Portrait - by Elizabeth Meek

Now on to the art involved!

Elizabeth Meek, the artist chosen to paint the miniature is a Past President of the Royal Miniature Society and a Past President of the Society of Women Artists and is now the Honorary President of the Royal Miniature Society.

She has previously painted the King when he was Prince of Wales - and you can see miniature painting of him on her biography page. There's a very nice letter from Charles at the bottom of this page - referencing her standing down from the Presidency of the RMS in 2013.

She's pictured below on the first day of the recent Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Scultors and Gravers - surrounded either side by some of the publicity about the Royal Family Award.

Elizabeth Meek MBE PPRMS PPSWA

Elizabeth told me that she'd had sit on the information about what she was doing and say not one word about it to anybody for over a year!

Sittings for miniature paintings of this kind are not normal and consequently she painted it from an official approved portrait of him as monarch in full regalia (see above for details)

I thought the contrast between the last two Royal Orders was interesting. It must be challenge to find the right way to paint a monarch aged 70+ whose face, hair and complexion is now very different from that of a very young and beautiful new monarch in her mid 20s as the late Queen was when she ascended the throne. The Queen's portrait has a cream background on a pale yellow ribbon and the King's face and now white hair reflects more that he's now nearer the end of his life. Consequently the background is silver grey and the portrait sits on a pale blue ribbon.

The miniature was painted in oil (rather than watercolour) on polymin, rather than ivory which has been the traditional support for miniature portraits in the past. However its use is now frowned upon by many, not least HM The King, due to too many elephants having been killed for the ivory in their tusks!

In the 18 months since Charles’ accession to the throne, many royal watchers assumed that the King would forgo ivory for his Family Order: he is, after all, an avid environmentalist, and the international ivory trade has been banned for over three decades. The Tatler

Polymin is a translucent treated plastic sheet - which is similar in texture to ivorine - and is an inert product developed by Polymers Plus specially for miniature painters. It has a very smooth surface making it ideal for use by miniature painters whose mark making using miniature brishes is exquisitely tiny.

You need a strong magnifier to see how a miniature is painted and an artist painting miniature portraits also needs a very good magnifier to see what they are doing when painting miniature portraits.

Below is a portrait of Elizabeth Meek with the four miniature portraits - in oil on p[olymin - which she recently exhibited at the RMS Annual Exhibition.

Four recent miniature portrait paintings - in oval or round cases
exhibited by Elzabeth Meek at the RMS Annual Exhibition