Inspiring art at the Queen's House

Feeling Blue is a new contemporary art commission for the Queen's House, currently hanging in the Queen's Presence Chamber opposite the Armada Portrait. It was created by multidisciplinary artist Alberta Whittle and Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh.

Weaving together themes including migration, melancholy and mythology, Feeling Blue responds directly to Royal Museums Greenwich’s sites and collections. The tapestry features more than 150 different colour combinations, incorporating materials such as rope and pearls as well as cottons and linens.

“I wanted to think about how collections speak to us as audience members, and how artworks talk to each other,” Whittle says.

Made by artist Christy Symington, this sculpture depicts Olaudah Equiano, a key figure in the abolitionist campaign.   

Born into what is now south-east Nigeria, Equiano was sold into slavery around the age of 11. He eventually bought his freedom and documented his experiences in his autobiography The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, one of the first books in Europe by a Black African writer.  

Equiano’s role as an abolitionist is referenced through the broken chains and shackles that wind around the sculpture. The shape that forms the back of his shoulders implies the continent of Africa.  

Migration, refugee crossings and identity are just some of the themes explored in this work by contemporary artist Kehinde Wiley.

A powerful reimagining of the traditions of marine art, it depicts a group of four migrants in a rickety boat, desperately searching for a better life.

Instead of a mast, a tree – perhaps suggestive of the tree of life – springs from the centre of the boat. The spectre of an 18th-century warship can be seen towards the right of the painting – a reference to the shadowy histories of colonialism and slavery.

Sorrow and jubilation are juxtaposed in this 19th-century painting by artist Henry Nelson O’Neil.   

Set along the Thames, the scene portrays the departure of a ship (most likely bound for North America) and the grieving families and friends left behind. Throughout the Victorian era, millions of British people emigrated to start new lives in countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.  

On the quayside, groups of figures from all social classes congregate. A young street fruit seller clutches a basket of oranges and gazes wistfully at the ship, while a woman in a purple shawl comforts a widow in black mourning dress.

Complete with rolling parkland, pastel skies and the meandering River Thames, this painting of Greenwich is one of tranquillity.

Created in around 1670 by Dutch artist Hendrick Danckerts – the court painter to King Charles II – the work is filled with intriguing details. Towards the left of the painting sits the Queen’s House, with the old Woolwich Road passing through it. This thoroughfare once connected the royal dockyards at Woolwich and Deptford.

At the top of the hill, a figure can be seen sketching, thought to be Danckerts himself.

A keen patron of the arts, Queen Anne of Denmark transformed the social and cultural life of the Stuart court, from staging masques (elaborate performances of music and dance) to collecting works of art. In 1616, she commissioned leading architect, Inigo Jones, to design the Queen’s House.   

This painting was made in around 1605 by the artist John de Critz. It would have been part of a pair, accompanying a portrait of her husband, King James I of England. 

This arresting bronze sculpture of a turritella seashell was acquired by Royal Museums Greenwich in 2021. It was made by Rowan Mersh, a multi-media artist known for his freestanding sculptures and large-scale wall pieces.  

A fusion of traditional craft and new technologies, the piece provides a nod to the artistic legacy of shell craft work, many examples of which are in Royal Museums Greenwich’s collections. 

A story of love, loss and reunion, these portraits of married couple, Commodore the Honourable William Kerr and Catherine Kerr have been united once more, after nearly 40 years apart.

Painted by artist Michael Dahl, the artworks are examples of pendant portraits – pictures that were made to hang as a pair.

While the sitters are in different settings – William is posed in front of a rocky seashore, and Catherine is depicted against a backdrop of classical architecture – there is a continuity of colours between the paintings.

In 1982, the portraits were sold as separate lots at an auction. William’s portrait was acquired for Royal Museums Greenwich. Following a four-decade separation, the Museum was able to acquire Catherine’s portrait in 2019.

Exuding authority and majesty, this commanding portrait of Henry VIII has become the definitive likeness of the famous Tudor monarch.

Created by the studio of Hans Holbein the Younger, Henry is shown wearing an embroidered gold doublet, a red coat with fur trimming and a black bejewelled hat. Around his neck he wears a pendant depicting St George and the Dragon – a symbol of national identity.

This work shows Henry in his late 40s – around the time he married his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, at Greenwich. Henry was born at Greenwich Palace and enlarged it considerably during his lifetime.

Made from hand-painted ceramic tiles, this hypnotic work captures the rippling surface of the sea. Measuring nearly two metres in height and around two metres in length, it was created by visual artist Tania Kovats, who uses forms including sculpture, installation and drawing to explore our relationship with the landscape.

To emphasise the fluidity of the waves, Kovats painted the tiles with glossy, liquid brushstrokes, which were then carefully fired and glazed.

Turning away from the viewer, the figure of Captain the Honourable Augustus Keppel strides across a beach strewn with the wreckage of the ship the Maidstone. 

The painting is by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and helped to transform his career. He would later become the leading English portraitist of the 18th century. 

Unlike other aristocratic portraits of the period, which typically depicted the subject standing in front of a classical column, Reynolds’ animated portrayal of Keppel blurred the boundaries between portraiture and history painting – a genre that drew on mythology and biblical stories as well as historical events. 

Painted in 1752-53, this portrait may have been a thank you gift for Keppel, who was Reynolds’ friend and artistic patron. 

Complete with foaming waves and a deep blue sky, this painting by artist John Everett depicts a convoy of merchant ships during World War One.  

The ships are covered in ‘dazzle painting’ – a type of camouflage developed by the marine artist Norman Wilkinson. This involved painting the ships in contrasting colours and geometric shapes – arranged in zebra-like patterns – to create a distorted effect. This would confuse enemy vessels about the size, outline, course and speed of a ship. 

Following his death in 1949, Everett bequeathed more than 2,000 of his marine paintings to the National Maritime Museum, from seascapes to deck scenes. 

Painted from the perspective of a low-flying aircraft, this panoramic artwork depicts the Dunkirk evacuation of the Second World War.

Between May and June 1940, more than 338,000 British and Allied troops were evacuated from Dunkirk in northern France to England to escape invading German forces.  

Artist Richard Ernst Eurich used sketches and photographs of the rescue, as well as eyewitness accounts, to create this painting.  

It powerfully depicts the destruction and terrors of war: billowing columns of smoke dominate the skyline, while queues of soldiers in the foreground scramble into boats.

This work by artist Tilly Kettle captures a meeting between two naval officers and a clerk on an 18th-century British warship.  

Seated to the right of the work, Vice-Admiral Sir Samuel Cornish issues orders to flag captain Richard Kempenfelt, who stands at the left-hand side. Between them sits Cornish’s secretary and the commissioner of this painting, Thomas Parry, who holds a quill. 

Produced in 1768, this work was regarded as Kettle’s masterpiece. After struggling to break into London’s art scene, Kettle relocated his business to India, where he became the first British artist to run a profitable practice. 

This painting was acquired for Royal Museums Greenwich in 2021 with support from Art Fund and the Society for Nautical Research Macpherson Collection Endowment Fund. 

Dressed in a grey silk overdress complete with a fleur-de-lys brooch and pearl necklace, Queen Henrietta Maria turns away from the viewer in this work by leading court artist, Anthony van Dyck.

In 1636-37, Van Dyck created a triple portrait of Henrietta Maria’s husband, King Charles I. The artwork was used to create a marble bust, made by sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

An avid collector and patron of the arts, Henrietta Maria wished to commission a companion bust of herself. This work was one of three profiles made by Van Dyck in preparation for the bust.

Henrietta Maria played a crucial role in the development of the Queen’s House and oversaw Inigo Jones’s completion of the building in the 1630s, following the death of Anne of Denmark. Make sure to take in the spectacular ceilings created for her in the King's and Queen's Presence Chambers, and look out for her name and initials in the decoration throughout the House.

Known for his industrial artworks, L.S. Lowry painted very few pictures of London. Here, he has used colour sparingly to great effect.

The Thames and sky are rendered using thickly applied white paint – a technique known as impasto – which is contrasted with the depth of blacks for the vessels and the chimney smoke.

Deptford Power Station was built in the 1890s but was demolished less than 100 years later.

Bursting with colour, this mural by artist Alan Ernest Sorrell was made for the bar of the aircraft carrier, HMS Campania. In 1951, the ship toured British ports as part of the Festival of Britain exhibition.  

Made of five panels, this mural is a celebration of Britain’s fishing communities. A flock of seagulls link the scenes together, holding a decorative rope.

From flaming vessels to drowning figures, this painting by Willem van de Velde the Younger is one of his most dramatic.  

Along with his father, Willem van de Velde the Elder, Van de Velde the Younger was a celebrated marine artist, who had a studio at the Queen’s House. During his lifetime, Van de Velde the Younger was known for his paintings of shipwrecks and stormscapes. 

In this painting, an English ship on the left battles with a ‘Barbary’ ship and two galleys. In the 17th century, North African raiders (often called ‘Barbary pirates’) attacked European shipping and coastal points.  

As with many of van de Velde the Younger’s paintings, he is not showing a specific battle here: it is a dramatic interpretation to emphasise his artistic prowess.

Carved in white marble and based on an original design by the Flemish sculptor John Michael Rysbrack, this bust depicts the architect of the Queen's House, Inigo Jones.   

A pioneering creative, Jones introduced the classical language of Italian building design to England, inspired by Renaissance architecture and the works of Andrea Palladio.  

In 1616, Jones was commissioned by Queen Anne of Denmark to design the Queen’s House. With its symmetrical shape and white exterior, the royal residence was in stark contrast to the red-brick palaces of the time.

Jones’s other designs include the Banqueting House at Whitehall and St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden.

Wrapped in a fur-lined robe and smoking a long pipe, Captain Lord George Graham sits down to dinner with his friend, David Mallet. Set on board a naval ship, this painting is the work of the great satirist, artist, social critic and engraver William Hogarth.

It is thought that Graham’s friends commissioned this painting to lift the Captain’s spirits following a breakdown.

The piece is filled with amusing details, from the cook spilling gravy down Mallet’s back to a bewigged pug – a reference to the brotherly connection between Graham and Hogarth, who were both freemasons.

Filled with exquisite detail, this painting by artist Andrew Morton depicts the meeting of army and naval veterans (the Chelsea Pensioners, identified by their scarlet coats and the Greenwich Pensioners, dressed in blue) – in the Painted Hall at Greenwich Hospital.

The paintings shown in ornate frames formed the National Gallery of Naval Art, which was located in the Painted Hall from 1824. This gallery was home to artworks including J.M.W. Turner’s The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805 and Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg’s The Battle of the First of June, 1794.

In 1936, the collection was transferred to the National Maritime Museum.