News
The Duchess attends the Face of Scotland exhibition
18th November 2009
Images of some of Scotland's best-known figures featured in an exhibition attended by The Duchess of Cornwall tonight.
Portraits of Ewan McGregor, Gordon Brown, Sean Connery and JK Rowling were among the artworks viewed by The Duchess.
The photographs and paintings were on show at the Face Of Scotland exhibition, staged at the Fleming Collection, near Piccadilly in central London.
The Duchess, known as The Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland, was attending the event in celebration of the work of the Public Catalogue Foundation (PCF).
She is Patron of the charity, which holds works of art in oil, tempera and acrylics, estimated to number around 200,000.
The PCF has already produced more than 30 catalogues covering 70,000 paintings in England and has now turned its efforts towards Scotland.
The artworks which were viewed by The Duchess were all from the Scottish National Portrait Gallery which is closed for refurbishment and will reopen in November 2011.
Her Royal Highness spent around an hour chatting to PCF staff and viewing the many portraits which included images of famous historical figures like Mary, Queen of Scots, Bonnie Prince Charlie and Robert Louis Stevenson.
One of the first images she stopped to look at was of a familiar face, the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, who was depicted by artist Avigdor Arikha in 1983.
Sonia Roe, who edits the PCF's catalogues, said her organisation was doing vital work.
She said: "You would be surprised how many collections don't have any idea what they contain. We were set up in 2003 to try to correct that.
"We're about the democratisation of paintings and letting the public know what they as a nation have."