Pietro Annigoni: Princess Margaret

"Portrait of Princess Margaret"
by Pietro Annigoni

"I had first seen Princess Margaret in Florence, when she was, I believe, making her first official overseas visit on her own. But it was not until I met her at Buckingham Palace, while painting the Queen, that I began to think seriously that she might sit for me. Then I let it be known in the right quarters that I would like to paint her and eventually a message came back from the Queen Mother that no member of the Royal Family could accept a gift. In reply I suggested that a nominal fee could be paid, and a sum of two hundred guineas was agreed.

At the end of October a room at Clarence House was allotted to me for my studio and I came over from Florence for the first sittings. But almost from the start nothing seemed to go right with the portrait. The principal reason was that, instead of making preliminary drawings, as was my usual practice, I had begun painting direct on to the canvas. The result was that after six sitting, a total of nine hours, I was so dissatisfied with the painting that I destroyed it. When I told the Princess what I had done and that I would have to start all over again, she was very understanding and promised me an extra six sittings if I needed them. I began work again, this time on a drawing, remarking that I had asked all my friends to pray for me. 'I'll pray for you, too, then,' she said with a little touch of mockery. At the end of the sitting, when she looked at the drawing, she commented, 'I see the Almighty has answered our prayers!'

To be continued 

(Excerpted from "Pietro Annigoni: An Artist's Life" by Pietro Annigoni, 1977.)