Two works by the late Portuguese artist Paula Rego have gone on show at No.10 Downing Street, the home of the UK prime minister, as part of a major re-hang. According to The Telegraph, Rego’s works— two scenes from her mural Crivelli’s Garden (1990-91)—are displayed in a room used for prime ministerial meetings with world leaders.
The paintings have replaced portraits of Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh. The portrait of the late Tudor monarch, painted around 1592 by the Flemish artist Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, is known as the Ditchley Portrait. According to the Government Art Collection (GAC) website, this work was “painted after a larger, more elaborate portrait, once in the collection at Ditchley House in Oxfordshire”. The portrait of Raleigh is by an unknown artist.
Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick told The Telegraph: “Stripping [Elizabeth I’s] portrait from Downing Street, alongside Walter Raleigh’s, seems to betray a strange dislike of our history by this Labour Government.”
The portrait of Queen Elizabeth I by Marcus Gheeraert the Younger was moved as part of "long planned" changes
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But Downing Street said the changes to the display were “long planned, since before the election, and timed to mark 125 years of the Government Art Collection”. Earlier this year, prime minister Keir Starmer stoked controversy when he relocated a portrait of the former Tory leader Margaret Thatcher within his residence.
The GAC website confirms that both Rego paintings—Study for Crivelli’s Garden (The Visitation, 1990-91) and Study for Crivelli’s Garden (1990-91)—are now on view at No.10.
Crivelli’s Garden was shown last year at the National Gallery in London, where the artist made the monumental mural during her Associate Artist residency from 1990 to 1992. Throughout this time she created new works for the exhibition Tales of the National Gallery, which was presented in the Sunley Room (December 1991-March 1992).
During the residency, Rego worked in the artist’s studio which was then in the basement of the gallery. The work was inspired by La Madonna della Rondine (The Madonna of the Swallow, after 1490) by the Venetian artist Carlo Crivelli.
Rego is spoken of as a "magic realist" painter; her tableaux weave Portuguese mythologies and scenes from popular Portuguese story books with fairy tales, historical re-enactments and religious iconography. She also tackled the themes of migration, abortion and depression.
The government press office was contacted for further comment.