Children’s Art Day: The Royal Collection
Everyone has heard of Buckingham Palace because the Queen lives there. But what a lot of people don't realise is that it's also home to a part of one of the largest and most famous art collections in the world.
| There’s much more to art than just pictures on the wall. |
We were lucky enough to go behind the scenes of the Royal Collection and find out exactly what goes into keeping this precious collection safe.
After being greeted at the door we spent an hour with the Director of the Royal Collection, Sir Hugh Roberts. The week before he'd spent time showing President Putin from the Russian Federation around the collection in Edinburgh but he seemed just as happy to give us a personal tour of the Queen's Gallery. He explained how the collection had been put together and even talked us through a few of the pieces.
Sir Hugh Roberts told us he thought you were never too young to enjoy art and said we might even see something during the course of the day, which we'd remember for the rest of our lives… he was right!
Eos, a painting of a greyhound dog by Sir Edwin Landseer was so realistic it looked as though it was going to jump out at us. And the Diamond Diadem made for King George IV and now worn by Queen Elizabeth II sparkled so brightly you could see it from the other end of the gallery.
We found the Queen's Gallery really interesting but were eager to explore the collection further. So we said goodbye to the general public, got our security passes and stepped into the world of royalty.
To experience firsthand the work that goes into keeping track of such an enormous collection, we walked through one of the lower corridors checking each and every piece for a number and making sure it was listed in the database. This was interesting and we learnt how much time and patience is needed to do a job like this.
But it was nowhere as much fun as our next task, where we got to choose a gift given to the Queen in the Jubilee Year, catalogue it and then find a perfect spot for it in the palace. The item we chose was a brown leather corgi, which we proudly placed on top of a cabinet in the Jubilee Room.
Next on our busy agenda was the e-Gallery, which we really enjoyed. The e-Gallery gives people the chance to virtually explore each of the pieces in the collection. It was fun using the computer's touch screen to find secret compartments in some of the treasures, which we'd earlier seen behind glass cases in the Queen's Gallery.
Our day at Buckingham Palace taught us that there's much more to art than just pictures on the wall and it was made all the more special by the fact that we were viewing treasures collected by Kings and Queens over a period of 400 years.
It was a once in a lifetime experience, which we'll still be talking about in years to come.
About the team
This story was produced by Mariya Bheekhun, 12, Tracey Jordan, 15, and Jane Kendzerski 13. It was published in Starworks, the annual Artworks magazine.
