A portrait of Princess Diana sold for more than 10 times its expected sale price, as announced by Sotheby’s auction house.
The oil piece, entitled ‘Diana, Princess of Wales’, was painted in 1994 by the late American artist Nelson Shanks. Sotheby’s said it was expected to sell for $20,000 dollars, but it finally sold for $201,600 dollars.
The rare painting of Diana’s face was created during the beginning of a full-length portrait of her. Artists sometimes use these head-only paintings to refine the emotions and perspectives of their sitter’s face. That is, the painting was originally for the painter’s use only.
While the image shows the princess with the same downcast eyes and pensive expression that was included in her portrait of full length, her backless green dress was later swapped for a white blouse for the larger final project, according to Sotheby’s.
The full portrait, which was hanging in Kensington Palace before being moved to her home in Althorp in Northamptonshire, it reflects, according to Sotheby’s: “The emotional toll of Diana’s public life in the mid-1980s 1990, but also their inner resistance“.
Diana, Shanks and his wife Leona became close friends during the time they worked on the portrait. In a letter from 1994 to the couple, Diana wrote: “I miss you and Leona in London as coming to the studio was such a joy. safe haven, full of support and love”, as reported by CBS.
Three years after sending that letter, Diana died in a car accident in Paris at the age of 36 years.
Shanks was commissioned to create a full-length portrait of the late Princess of Wales in the late 1990s, which required several in-person sessions in which the princess was posing seated for more than 35 hours.
The artist is perhaps best known for his official portrait of former US President Bill Clinton, which includes a shadow of Monica Lewinsky’s famous blue Gap dress.
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