AN ARTIST has travelled to Buckingham Palace to deliver a gift to Queen Elizabeth of a painting of her State visit to the Republic.
Michael Hanrahan (59), the only Irish artist granted media accreditation for the visit, had produced seven paintings depicting key moments in the Queen’s itinerary.
He subsequently wrote to the palace offering the monarch a gift of one of the paintings and was “honoured” to receive a reply from her deputy private secretary, Sir Edward Young, that “her majesty would be pleased to receive this gift”.
Hanrahan flew to London with the painting, The Queen and the President at the Garden of Remembrance. He was accompanied by his four adult children – Aisling, Daniel, Sinéad and Orla – and was taken to the palace in a chauffeur-driven Bentley, registered TOB 1, which he said was supplied by London-Irish builder "Tom O'Brien from Tourmakeady, Co Mayo, who heard about the story".
He presented the painting to “the chief clerk, Christopher Sandamas, who was thrilled with it and said it would go straight into the Queen’s collection”.
His six other paintings of the visit will be auctioned by Whyte’s in Dublin on October 10th.
The paintings, which include images of the Queen meeting Taoiseach Enda Kenny at Government Buildings and Lady O’Reilly at the National Stud, have a pre-sale estimate of €1,500-€2,000 each. They will go on display at the RDS in Ballsbridge ahead of the auction.
