‘I really like how people contain their time, in their faces.’ - Elizabeth Peyton
‘…with Harry, he just sort of shined like an angel.’ – Elizabeth Peyton
In the present work, Elizabeth Peyton captures the innocent adolescence of the 14-year-old Prince Harry in a flurry of expertly applied brushstrokes, creating an intimate and emotive depiction of the young royal. The portrait was executed a year after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, an event that shook the world and focused global attention on her two young sons. Peyton’s oeuvre is comprised of portraits of cultural icons, musicians, actors and friends alike; Prince Harry is exemplary of a series of works focusing on the young Prince through the late 1990s. Rendered through a wash of watercolour planes and bleeding pigment, Harry appears through the composition in focus, his expression indicative of both thoughtful maturity and youthful vulnerability. Likely taken from a source image of a public event, his body dissolves among a palette of regal reds, purples and mauves. Speaking of her interest in the Royal Family in a video interview in 2013 Peyton stated ‘with Harry, he just sort of shined like an angel’. Focusing on Harry more than other Royal figures, Peyton was intrigued by his special status as a royal in that he is not a direct heir to the British throne, and therefore enjoys a different kind of ‘free’ position (Kamilla Bruus, ed., ‘Elizabeth Peyton: Faces Contain Their Time’, Louisiana Channel, 2013, online, video). The artist’s admiration for the Prince is evident through the tenderness with which she has conveyed Harry’s piercing blue eyes and delicate features. Celebrated for her adept ability at capturing the essence and complexity of a personality or the context surrounding them in her portraits, Peyton’s body of work was recently celebrated at her exhibition Elizabeth Peyton: Aire and Angels at the National Portrait Gallery, London, which opened in Autumn 2019.