大象传媒

3 January 2018

A major partnership between the 大象传媒 and Royal Collection Trust, the Royal Collection Season reveals the fascinating history of one of the most important art collections in the world. It tells the stories behind the masterpieces and also some of the lesser-known works of art.

The Royal Collection is one of the most important and largest art collections in the world. Containing over a million works, it not only covers all aspects of the fine and decorative arts, but is also a personal record of the tastes and passions of kings and queens over the last 500 years.

Forty years since the story of the Royal Collection was last told so extensively on television, this brings the many treasures of the Collection to screens. Andrew Graham-Dixon selects some of the most spectacular works of art from this vast collection, as well as some of the lesser-known objects, as he visits royal residences, museums and galleries across the UK.

This is a collection that includes world-famous masterpieces by Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Canaletto and unrivalled collections of exquisite drawings by Holbein and Leonardo da Vinci.

From grand sculpture and some of the most remarkable furniture ever made to Tudor miniatures and the extravagant creations of Fabergé, Andrew Graham-Dixon will explain what the objects meant to the artists who created them and to the royal collectors who acquired them. For centuries, the Royal Collection has helped the monarchy to perform its duty while also projecting its tastes, priorities and concerns.

In episode four of the series, Andrew Graham-Dixon interviews The Prince of Wales about The Prince's role as Chairman of The Royal Collection Trust, the charity responsible for the care, conservation and display of the Collection, and examines two of His Royal Highness's recent commissions of portraits of World War Two veterans.

In this , presenter Brenda Emmanus explores the Royal Academy’s landmark exhibition Charles I: King and Collector, organised in partnership with Royal Collection Trust.

For the first time since the 17th century, and to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Academy in 2018, much of Charles I’s extraordinary art collection will be reassembled and displayed at the Royal Academy in London.

The exhibition will include more than 90 works of art from the Royal Collection. With the help of art historians, as well as those who have worked with galleries and museums across the world to bring this extraordinary collection back together, Brenda will unpack the stories behind the works in Charles I's collection - including by artists such as Dürer, Rubens, Titian and Holbein.

She will tell the incredible story of how it was amassed by Charles I and then dismantled by Oliver Cromwell, and trace the King’s motivation in creating such an outstanding art collection.

Dr Amanda Foreman explores some of the extraordinary stories behind works of art in the Royal Collection through documentary material from the Royal Archives, including how Charles II attempted to reinstate the great losses to his father’s unparalleled art collection, once the monarchy had been restored following the Civil War.

Among the fascinating objects explored are the satirical prints by Thomas Rowlandson of the future George IV, who secretly sent an eminent violinist (who later would become Master of Music to the King) to intervene with the publishers and buy up the complete print run and original plates to try to stifle criticism.

Foreman reveals just how instrumental Prince Albert was in motivating the minds behind the Great Exhibition of 1851, the world's first fair of arts, crafts and manufacturing that put British technological pre-eminence on view to over six million visitors from across the globe. She also examines Queen Victoria’s notebook, containing the details of her first State Visit to meet Napoleon III in France – a country that only 40 years earlier was Britain’s deadliest foe.