Sporting a blue face mask with a peacock design, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, this morning paid a socially distanced visit to London’s National Gallery to congratulate staff on their 8 July reopening, after its 111-day coronavirus closure.
Gabriele Finaldi, the gallery's director, escorted her to the renovated Rausing room and to see Anthony van Dyck’s conserved Equestrian Portrait of Charles I (around 1637–38). Prince Charles, the duchess's husband, has served as the gallery’s royal patron since 2017 and was also a trustee in 1986-93.
On one never-to-be-forgotten occasion in 1984, Charles described an architectural proposal (later dropped) for the Sainsbury Wing as a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend”. Although the prince did not accompany the duchess today, he attended the openings of the Michelangelo & Sebastiano (2017) and Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light (2019) exhibitions.