Overall: 36cm (14in) x 46cm (18in)
Oil on board. Landscape study of Windsor Castle viewed from a vantage point in Windsor Great Park. Titled, dated and inscribed verso in the artist’s hand ’18. 5. 40’ / ‘A Summer’s Day in Windsor Great Park / By Frank Beresford / The Hall Studio / London NW8’.
Frank Beresford (1881-1967) was a favourite with the British Royal Family having made his name with the ‘The Princes' Vigil: 12.15am, January 28 1936’ (1936), depicting George V lying in state in Westminster Hall. Exhibited to great acclaim at the Royal Academy, the Vigil was bought by Queen Mary. Beresford later painted George V for HMS Excellent at Portsmouth, George VI and his consort Queen Elizabeth (1937) for King’s Lynn town council. Most closely connected with the present view of Windsor Castle however was his portrait of ‘The Morning Ride’ (1934), featuring Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret.
Frank Beresford was born in Derby in 1881 and trained at the Derby School of Art (1895-1900), the Académie Carmen (Paris), St John's Wood Art Schools (1900-1901) and the Royal Academy Schools (1901-1906). Between 1906 and 1908, Beresford was elected to a British Institution Scholarship and embarked on a 30,000 mile, 18-month-long international painting tour, during which he attended the Meiji Emperor’s annual tea party in Tokyo. Before the Great War, Beresford also designed murals for St Bartholomew the Great Church, Smithfield and received an art award from the Japanese Government (1909). During the Great War (1914-1918) Beresford joined the London Regiment and served as an instructor, rising to the rank of Sergeant-Major. A regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy, he was an early member of the United Society of Artists (founded 1921) and of the New Society of Artists. His popular oil canvas portraits, painted in his St John’s Wood studios, resulted in a career spanning six decades. A natural salesman, he received over 3,000 individual commissions from royalty, aristocracy, ex-civic leaders and politicians, senior army officers, society figures, celebrities and industrialists. During the Second World War he was an accredited artist to both the RAF and USAAF. See J. Fineran (2008) ‘Frank E. Beresford: Indomitable Self Belief 1881-1967’ .