Provenance: Estate of Mary Millar Watt (1924-2023)
Overall: 77cm (30.3in) x 77cm (30.3in)
Oil on canvas. A representation of the Royal arms for the young Queen Elizabeth II (1926- 2022) featuring the Tudor Crown.
The Royal Arms of the United Kingdom - viz Quarterly, First and Fourth Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or armed and langued Azure (for England), Second quarter Or a lion rampant within a double tressure flory counter-flory Gules (for Scotland), Third quarter Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland), the whole surrounded by the Garter; for a Crest, upon the Royal helm the imperial crown Proper, thereon a lion statant guardant Or imperially crowned Proper; Mantling Or and ermine; for Supporters, dexter a lion rampant guardant Or crowned as the Crest, sinister a unicorn Argent armed, crined and unguled Proper, gorged with a coronet Or composed of crosses patée and fleurs de lys a chain affixed thereto passing between the forelegs and reflexed over the back also Or; Motto 'Dieu et mon Droit’.
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John Millar Watt (1895-1975) was a Scottish-born painter, illustrator and comics artist. He was educated in London at the Sir John Cass Institute and apprenticed to an advertising agency before the First World War. In 1915 he enlisted in the Artists Rifles and was commissioned into the Essex Regiment. After the war he studied briefly at the Slade and returning to advertising work, supplementing his wages with cartoons for the Daily Chronicle and illustrations for The Sphere. In 1921 he created a long running comic strip for the Daily Sketch that was one of a few to be successfully syndicated in America. Watt also produced a number of strips for rivals D. C. Thomson but from 1949 onwards concentrated on lucrative advertising and illustration work for a range of popular publications.