Inside William’s Next Act: Tatler’s May issue goes behind the scenes as the Prince of Wales is rising above the noise — and playing the long game
The burden of leadership is falling upon Prince William, but as former BBC Royal Correspondent, Wesley Kerr OBE, explains in Tatler’s May cover story, the future king is taking charge
By Wesley Kerr OBE
21 March 2024
When I first met Prince William in 2009, he asked me if I could tell him how he could win the National Lottery.
It was a jokey quip from someone who has since become the Prince of Wales, the holder of three dukedoms, three earldoms, two baronies and two knighthoods, and heir to the most prestigious throne on earth.
He was, of course, being relatable; I was representing the organisation that had allocated Lottery funding towards the Whitechapel Gallery and he wanted to put me at ease.
William is grand but different, royal but real.
At 6ft 3in, he has the bearing and looks great in uniform after a distinguished, gallant military career.
He will be one of the tallest of Britain’s kings since Edward Longshanks in the 14th century and should one day be crowned sitting above the Stone of Scone that Edward ‘borrowed.’
William, by contrast, has a deep affinity with Scotland and Wales, having lived in both nations and gained solace from the Scottish landscape after his mother died.
He’s popular in America and understands that the Crown’s relationship to the Commonwealth must evolve.
The Prince of Wales has long believed that ‘the Royal Family has to modernise and develop as it goes along, and it has to stay relevant’, as he once said in an interview.
He seeks his own way of being relatable, of benefitting everybody, in the context of an ancient institution undergoing significant challenge and upheaval, as the head of a nation divided by hard times, conflicts abroad, and social and political uncertainty.
We might recognise Shakespeare’s powerful line spoken by Claudius in Hamlet: ‘When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.’
With the triple announcement in January and February of the Princess of Wales’s abdominal surgery and long convalescence, of King Charles’s prostate procedure and then of his cancer diagnosis, the burden of leadership has fallen on 76-year-old Queen Camilla and, crucially, on William.
The Prince of Wales’s time has come to step up; and so he has deftly done.
In recent months, we have seen a fully-fledged deputy head of state putting into practice his long-held ideas, speaking out on the most contentious issue of the day and taking direct action on homelessness.
Last June, he unveiled the multi-agency Homewards initiative with the huge aspiration of ending homelessness, backed with £3 million from his Foundation to spearhead action across the UK.
He is consolidating Heads Together, the long-standing campaign on mental health, and fundraises for charities like London’s Air Ambulance Charity.
He was, of course, once a pilot for the East Anglian Air Ambulance services – a profession that had its downside: seeing people in extremis or at death’s door, he found himself ‘taking home people’s trauma, people’s sadness.’
Tom Cruise was a guest at the recent London’s Air Ambulance Charity fundraiser, William’s first gala event after Kate’s operation.
And more stardust followed when William showed that, even without his wife by his side, he could outclass any movie star at the Baftas.
There’s also his immense aim of helping to ‘repair the planet’ itself with his Earthshot Prize: five annual awards of £1 million for transformative environmental projects with worldwide application.
This project has a laser focus on biodiversity, better air quality, cleaner seas, reducing waste and combating climate change. Similar aims to his father; different means to achieve the goal.
On the issue which has caused huge convulsions – the Middle East conflict – William’s 20 February statement from Kensington Palace grabbed attention.
He said he was ‘deeply concerned about the terrible human cost of the conflict since the Hamas terrorist attack on 7 October. Too many have been killed.’
There were criticisms – along the lines of ‘the late Queen would have never spoken out like this’ or ‘what right does he have to meddle in politics?’ – but it was hard to disagree with his carefully calibrated words.
His call for peace, the ‘desperate need’ for humanitarian aid, the return of the hostages.
The statement was approved by His Majesty’s Government, likely cleared with the King himself at Sandringham the previous weekend and also backed by the chief rabbi of Great Britain, Sir Ephraim Mirvis.
Indeed, William and Catherine had immediately spoken out on the horrors of 7 October.
William followed up the week after his Kensington Palace statement by visiting a synagogue and sending a ‘powerful message’, according to the chief rabbi, by meeting a Holocaust survivor and condemning anti-Semitism.
This is rooted in deep personal conviction following William’s 2018 visit to Israel and the West Bank, says Valentine Low, the distinguished author of Courtiers and The Times’s royal correspondent of 15 years, who was on that 2018 trip.
‘William was so moved by his visit to Israel and the West Bank, he found it very affecting, and he was not going to drop this issue – he was going to pay attention to it for the rest of his life,’ says Low.
‘He must feel that… not to say something on the most important issue in the world [at that moment] would be a bit odd if you feel so strongly about it.’
There was concern from some commentators about politicising the monarchy, but this rose above the particulars of party politics.
As Prince of Wales, like his father before him, there is perhaps space to speak out sparingly on carefully chosen issues.
On this occasion, his views were in line with majority public opinion.
On homelessness, news came that same week that William was planning to build 24 homes for the homeless on his Duchy of Cornwall estate.
‘William’s impact is very personal,’ says Mick Clarke, chief executive of The Passage, a charity providing emergency accommodation for London’s homeless.
‘Two weeks before Christmas, the prince came to our Resource Centre in Victoria for a Christmas lunch for 150 people.
He was scheduled to stay for an hour, to help serve, wash up, and talk to people.
He ended up staying for two and a quarter hours, during which time he went from table to table and spoke to every single person.’
Clarke continues:
‘William has an ability to listen, talk and to put people at ease. During the November 2020 lockdown, he came on three separate occasions to help.
It gave the team a boost that he took the time; it was his way of saying: “I support you; you’re doing a great job.”’
Seyi Obakin, chief executive of Centrepoint, one of the prince’s best-known causes, adds:
‘People associate his patronage with the big moments like the time he and I slept under Blackfriars Bridge.
The things that stick with me are smaller in scale and the more profound for it – in quieter moments, away from the cameras, where he has volunteered his time.’
It is a different approach from the King’s.
As Prince of Wales, he was involved in the minutiae of dozens of issues at any one time, working into the night to follow up on emails, crafting his speeches, writing or dictating notes.
Add to that much nationwide touring over 40 years (after he left active military service in 1976), fitting in multiple engagements, often being greeted formally by lord lieutenants.
This is not William’s style. He has commended his father’s model, but he does things his own way.
Although patronages are under review, William has up till now far fewer than either his father or his grandparents.
Charles is sympathetic to William’s approach and his desire to make time with his young family sacrosanct.
They are confidantes, attested by the night of Queen Elizabeth’s death.
They were both at Birkhall with Camilla, reviewing funeral arrangements while the rest of the grieving family were nearby at Balmoral, hosted by the Princess Royal.
Charles has had almost six decades in public life and is the senior statesman of our time, with even longer in the spotlight than Joe Biden.
After Eton and St Andrew’s University, where he met Catherine, William served in three branches of the military between 2006 and 2013, finishing as a seasoned and skilled helicopter rescue pilot.
His later employment as an air ambulance pilot stopped in 2017, when he became a full-time working royal.
At that time, not so long ago – with Harry unmarried, Andrew undisgraced, and Philip and Elizabeth still active – William shared the spotlight.
Now, after the King, he’s the key man.
He can look back on the success of his first big campaign initially launched with his wife and brother in 2016: Heads Together.
‘We are delighted that Prince William should have become such a positive and sympathetic advocate for mental health through his Heads Together initiative and now well-established text service, Shout, among other projects,’ says the longtime CEO and founder of Sane, the remarkable Marjorie Wallace CBE.
‘It is not always known that he follows in the footsteps of his father, the King, whose inspiration and vision were vital in the creation of our mental health charity Sane.
As founding patron, he was instrumental in establishing our 365-days-a-year helpline and was a remarkable and selfless support to me in setting up the Prince of Wales International Centre for Sane Research.’
'Indeed,' says Wallace, 'this is where Prince William echoes the work of his father, showing the same ‘understanding and compassion for people struggling through dark and difficult times of their lives and has done much to raise awareness and encourage those affected to speak out and seek help.
We owe a huge debt to His Majesty and the Prince of Wales for their involvement in this still-neglected area.’
Just as I saw all those years ago at that early solo engagement in Whitechapel, William still approaches his public duties with humour and fun.
‘He defuses the formality with jocularity,’ says Valentine Low, citing two public events in 2023 that he witnessed.
In April last year, while on a visit to Birmingham, William randomly answered the phone in an Indian restaurant he was being shown around and took a table booking from a customer – an endearing act of spontaneity.
On his arrival later that day, the unsuspecting diner was surprised to be told exactly whom he had been talking to.
In October, Low reported, William ‘unleashed his inner flirt as he hugged his way through a visit with Caribbean elders [in Cardiff] to mark Black History Month.
As he gave one woman a hug – for longer than she expected – he joked: “I draw the line at kissing.”
And while posing for a group photograph, he prompted gales of laughter when he quipped: “Who is pinching my bottom?”’
Low believes that when William eventually becomes king, he will be more ‘radical’ than his father but wonders if people will respond to ‘call me William’ when ‘the whole point of the Royal Family is mystique and being different.’
However, William has thought deeply about his current role and is prepared for whatever his future holds.
For now, there is a decision to be made on Prince George’s secondary schooling. It’s said that five public schools are being considered, all fee-paying.
Eton is single-sex and boarding but close to home. Marlborough (Catherine’s alma mater) is co-ed and full boarding. And Oundle, St Edward’s Oxford and Bradfield College (close to Kate’s parents) are co-ed with a mix of boarding and day.
As parents, William and Catherine aspire to raise their children ‘as good people with the idea of service and duty to others as very important’, William said in an interview with the BBC in 2016.
‘Within our family unit, we are a normal family.’ Which may be one reason why he is so resistant to their privacy being compromised either by the media or close family members.
The 19th-century author Walter Bagehot wrote:
‘A family on the throne is an interesting idea also. It brings down the pride of sovereignty to the level of petty life… a princely marriage is the brilliant edition of a universal fact, and, as such, it rivets mankind.’
If hereditary monarchy is to survive, it must beguile us but also demonstrate its utility, that it is a force for good.
William said in that 2016 interview, ‘I’m going to get plenty of criticism over my lifetime,’ echoing Queen Elizabeth II’s famous Guildhall speech in 1992 ‘that criticism is good for people and institutions that are part of public life. No institution – city, monarchy, whatever – should expect to be free from the scrutiny of those who give it their loyalty and support, not to mention those who don’t.’
William saw close up his mother’s ability to bring public focus and her own personal magnetism to any subject or cause she focused on.
He admires his father’s work ethic, the way he ‘really digs down,’ sometimes literally (I understand that gardening is giving the King solace during his cancer treatment).
But the biggest influence for William was Her late Majesty, as he said on her 90th birthday.
As an Eton schoolboy, William made weekend visits to the big house on the hill, being mentored by Granny rather as she had been tutored in the Second World War by the then vice-provost of Eton, Sir Henry Marten.
William said in 2016:
‘In the Queen, I have an extraordinary example of somebody who’s done an enormous amount of good and she’s probably the best role model I could have.’
That said, his aim was ‘finding your own path but with very good examples and guidance around you to support you.'
Queen Elizabeth II had a brilliant way of rising above the fray and usually being either a step ahead of public opinion or in tune with it.
If you are at the helm of affairs in a privileged hereditary position, your duty is to serve and use your pulpit for the benefit of others.
In a democracy, monarchy is accountable.
The scrutiny is intense, with an army of commentators paid for wisdom and hot air about each no-show, parsing each announcement, interpreting each image.
William takes the long view. He has ‘wide horizons,’ says Mick Clarke.
‘There are so many causes that are more palatable and easier to achieve than ending homelessness, but his commitment and drive are 100 per cent.’
The prince seeks a different way of being royal in an ancient institution that must move with the times. His task? To develop something modern in an ever-changing world.
He faces all sorts of new issues – or old issues in new guises.
Noises off from within the family don’t help – Andrew’s difficulties, or the suggestions of prejudice from Montecito a couple of years ago (now seemingly withdrawn), which prompted William’s most vehement soundbite: ‘We’re very much not a racist family.’
William is maybe a new kind of leader who can keep the monarchy relevant and resonant in the coming decades.
Queen Elizabeth II is a powerful exemplar and memory, but she was of her time. William is his own man.
He must overcome and think beyond ‘the unforgiving minute.’
Indeed, he could seek inspiration in Rudyard Kipling’s poem, If.
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch[…]
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
This article was first published in the May 2024 issue, on sale Thursday, 28 March.
Writing in my 2024 journal for the first time & trying to come to terms with the fact that I write deeply revealing material. Currently getting through "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera (translated by Michael Henry Heim) & I wrote down in my notes that I have this strange sensation while reading it because I'm finding my own scattered & underdeveloped thoughts & feelings manifesting themselves across the pages of the book, whole and thoughtfully formed.
Rating: Explicit
Wordcount: 2k
Major tags: Alex/Henry, post book/movie, condom break, awful jokes, porn without plot (but with lots of feelings), Alex is the worst (kind of), Henry loves him anyway (or because of it)
The happiest of birthdays to my cuddliest little pine marten Tej @ohhsodebonair — you're so incredibly kind and talented and generous, and your friendship means the world to me. 💞💞💞 Here's to another year screaming about these two, and about all the other things we hold dear. I love you to the outer space and back 🪐✨
As for the fic — well. This was living in my head rent free, so I wrote it. Alternatively titled: But we were ever so careful, dear.
Read on AO3
“Oh my god.” Alex lifts his head, turning to look at Henry. “The joke.”
Henry frowns. “What joke?”
“The joke you made about us being careful? The fucking news headline? Me becoming a father?”
“Ah.” Henry clears his throat with what sounds like practiced nonchalance. “What about it, exactly?”
heyy henry, ask game going around, could you perhaps perchance maybe share 5 of your favorite songs <3 (then pass it on to 10 most recents followers or mutuals with good music taste etc)
hello my darling!! I LOVE an ask game ok well this is more like a review. y'know those review sessions you go to before a big test where you sort of already know the material? this is that. so place your bets. what's going to be under the cut. if you get 2 or more we r legally married <3
REVERSE ORDER OK
5. Church by Sam Henshaw! A BEAUTIFUL song so funky and fun SH is one of my fave artists
4. Knievel by Tommy Lefroy. God. This song GETS me
3. Heel Turn 2 (live in the Jordan Lake Sessions) by the mountain goats!!! throw my better self overboard shoot at him when he comes up for air!!!
2. A new favourite, one i've never mentioned because i only saw the film on Tuesday! Ask Me Why (Mother's Message) from The Boy and The Heron. TIED WITH Driving Back by Jef Martens. Both instrumental piano pieces which make me insane.
1. You Signed Up For This by Maisie Peters. YOU ALREADY KNEW THIS WAS COMING!!!
Honorable mentions to Holy Revival, Lunar Years, and Lost The Breakup!! Maisie understands me....
@heartunfettered @fourloudboys @steelycunt @treehousekeeping @lovergirlmp3 @loverscrossmp3 if you fancy....also anyone who follows me and sees this ily i want to hear your top 5 songs <3
henri nouwen // like minds (2006) // death - melanie martinez // pope alexander - crywank // her mother's kiss - eugene carriere // sometimes i fall asleep thinking about you - catarine hancock // the song of achilles - madeline miller // achilles lamenting the death of patroclus - gavin hamilton // lee martens
Hey! In which way were men & women hunting clothes different from court clothes in the times of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn? I suppose they were more practical, like tighter sleeves for the ladies instead trumpet sleeves? What about their headgear? And while going for practical, perhaps there were also some jewel ornaments here and there bc it always was about showing how rich u are? I watched some hunting scenes in Wolf Hall but Anne's dress looks like ... Too medieval? (I cant remember well, where H&A recreating Robin & Marian? Both in green with arrows). Do we have images of Tudor/Henrician hunting clothes? Thanks.
Women wore riding habits and 'safeguards' if they were riding without them, to protect their gowns from any dirt. Queens carried whips, 'ryding roddes', alone or in bags, such as 'a bagge of blue buckram with ryding roddes'.
Livery was provided for servants of the hunt, hose was set to be green, probably for better camouflage, and double-soled shoes for relative silence in pursuit.
The great wardrobe accounts of Henry VIII number 'hunting shoes', 'hunting spurs', 'hunting coats' (also usually green, likely for the same reason), 'riding cloaks', 'riding coats', 'riding bonnets', 'riding caps', 'riding hoods', 'hunting gloves' (one, made from doe skin), 'hawking coats' and 'hawking gloves' (one, embroidered with damask gold).
Henry VII owned 'riding gowns' of 'crimson and black velvet' and one of 'purple velvet with libards'.
Prince Arthur owned a 'riding gown of crimson velvet furred with martens' & 'a riding hood of black satin lined with black velvet'.
Anne Boleyn once gifted Du Bellay a 'hunting coat and hat'. Henry VIII gifted her shooting gloves and a bracer to guard her wrist(s), saddle(s) 'of the French fashion, with a pillow of down covered with black velvet' and 'Spanish leather', 'saddle hose' (if I had to guess, 'boot hose', 'stocking worn inside boots to protect the netherstocks', or this is just another word for reins), and "pillion saddles for [them] to ride out together'.
Boots and spurs were worn by men for riding. One example of the former were 'brown skin deerskin thigh high boots, cut from one piece of deerskin and pinked (scalloped) for ease of movement, seamed up the back of the leg and shaped at the calf and the knee'.
'Buskins' seem to be the type of boots worn primarily by women:
"knee-high, pull-on boots with
a turned down top, often with lacing for
fastening, made from both leather and
silk"
Henry Fitzroy owned riding coats and cloaks of scarlet, black, crimson, green, and purple, made from cotton, frisado (a heavy worsted cloth), satin and taffeta.
Thomas Cranmer owned a 'short riding jacket of worsted lined with cotton'.
There were also whistles made for luring a falcon or hawk back to its owner's glove.
Sources:
Hayward M. (2007). Dress at the court of king henry viii.
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a/n: Inspired by the 1900 painting by Henri Levy. Also a vent fic so tread lightly. This is no way a fluff fanfiction but who doesn't love a good angst?
Your mind was filled with the thuds of heavy rain hitting against the trailer windows. It was currently 2am at night as you strummed the strings of your fender guitar, your fingers making no chords in particular. The lit marlboro cigarette hung loosely from your lips as you try to distract yourself from the ache from your chest as your boyfriend still wasn't back from his band gig.
You would usually go with Eddie to his shows to support him and hang out with the rest of the band, but you and him got into a fight before he left about him finishing high school.
"You promised me that you would work on getting your diploma! And now you barley even attend the fucking classes let alone pass them!"
"Well I'm sorry I'm such a big fucking disappointment!"
The memories kept flooding back to you as you smoked your way through an entire pack of smokes. You loved Eddie with all your being, and he loved you back. You were both obsessed with each other that some would even call it unhealthy. However, when you two fight, it gets bad. You both had your issues and you both didn't know how to express anger in a healthy way. Things get smashed from the both of you, words get exchanged and nasty names get spat but you two always made up because you both knew you would be miserable without each other. You had no doubt that Corroded Coffin would make it big one day, fuck you even knew it for a fact. But until they hit their big break, you two had bills to pay and unfortunately your income and Eddie's drug money was barley enough to survive off of.
As you put out your cigarette in the ash tray on the side table, the door suddenly busted open, startling you. It was your boyfriend soaked in rain water and he sported a fresh bloody nose.
"Eddie?" You asked, raising your head to look at him with soft eyes. No matter how mad you were at him, the scene in front of you tore on your heart strings. You studied him closely almost like a chapter book. The blood was pouring down his face, droplets of the crimson fluid was on his favorite Slayer shirt. His dark eyes were empty, almost like looking into the abyss.
"What the hell happened to you?" You spoke up once more, watching his eyes harden. Eddie had always tried to mask his feelings, bottling them up. You knew it was because of his childhood; his mother that had left him and his alcoholic criminal father never being there for him emotionally. You always gave him the benefit of the doubt but sometimes dealing with never knowing whats going on through his head gave you anxiety and saddened you.
"What are you still doing awake?" He asked as he walked over to the table to grab a cigarette for himself. The black leather doc marten boots he was wearing tracked in the rain and the mud from outside. He brought it to his lips, lighting it with a match and inhaling deeply.
"Couldn't sleep. Don't change the subject. What happened to your nose?" Your question was more stern this time, demanding an answer.
"None of your damn business, Y/N." Eddie scolded as he looked at you with cold eyes.
"Don't start your fucking bullshit, Munson." You were now pissed off, his nose injury slipping from your mind as you knew you two were going to be fighting until morning. You swung your guitar onto the couch, standing up and marching towards him. "I'm not in the mood but if you want to fucking go, we can do this all night baby I have nowhere to be."
"Well you're always meddling into my business. I'm tired of it! Fuck off for once!" Eddie was now in your face with a raised voice. You could smell the alcohol on his breath, now knowing he most likely got into a drunken fight after one of his shows like he often does.
"Oh let me guess? You were pissing away all of the money at the bar again, huh? I'm so sick of dealing with your stupid shit all the time!" You yelled back in his face 10 times louder, poking your finger in his chest. You knew Eddie always had a dark side, but that's what attracted you towards him because you knew you also had a dark side. You didn't have to pretend with Eddie about your thoughts of how you view yourself or the blame you have on your mothers death from when you were 16. The guilt had followed you into your adulthood, never leaving your side.
"Then leave me, Y/N! I will never be what you want me to be. You're too good for a drug dealer, huh? Is that it? You weren't too good for me when you were basically fucking me for drugs, Y/N!" Eddie shouted. You two always had to one up each other on the insults, never knowing when enough is enough.
"You fucking asshole! You're just like your piece of shit father you good for noth-" as the words fled from your mouth, you knew you had fucked up. He despised his dad with every fiber of his being. You two would lay in bed at night as he confessed to you being petrified to turn out like him.
As soon as you said it, the mans face went from being absolutely pissed off to self hatred. His doe eyes relaxed and all you could see was regret in his eyes. "don't ever compare me to him."
You were debating on your next move, scanning his facial expressions to somehow find your answer. He beat you to it though as he put out his cigarette in the ashtray. He lazily fell into the couch, cupping his hands to his face as if he didn't want you to see him anymore. You noticed the dried blood that had seeped into the details of his silver rings.
You stared down at him unsure of what to say. When you two had fought in the past, it always ended in you two walking away from each other pissed off. Later, whichever had the courage to do so that day, broke the tension by doing little things like cooking for one another or a guitar session. Never has one broke down in tears from emptiness.
"I'm so tired, Y/N. I can't keep doing this." He muffled into his hands. You slowly made your way over to the seat next to him, propping your guitar against the wall.
He turned towards you with teary eyes. Your eyes softened with guilt from the words you spoke to him. "Look Eddie, I didn't really mean-" He cut you off again.
"No, you're right. I am just like him. I'm a piece of shit drug dealer. I can't even properly express my feelings towards my own partner. Everyone at school thinks I'm a freak. I mean you should hear the things they say about me, Y/N."
That's when you saw through Eddie like a piece of glass. The man that sat in front of you was nowhere near the dark like you often thought he was- he was completely broken.
"How do people expect me to not start acting like all the things they call me? I can't meet the expectations of others and I can't deal with the pressure of the world. For me to simply be okay." Tears were spilling out of his eyes at this point.
"I can't be the nephew Wayne wants me to be. I can't be the cool older friend Dustin wants me to be. I can't be the boyfriend you deserve. All I am is simply nothing."
It was your turn for tears to spill out of your eyes now. You often compared you and Eddie for sharing the same darkness but you two were just fragile human beings trying to get by in this world of chaos. You both were so used to putting on a tough act that it was almost a fake personality now. Sure, you and Eddie have shared each others deepest secrets to each other. He has held you as you were sobbing from the hatred you had for yourself and you have held him as he was struggling with his own demons. You two may not be perfect, fuck nowhere near perfect. But you had an undying love for each other to the point where you would die for each other.
You pulled his head towards your chest, holding it close. You began stroking his wet curls as you shushed him to calm down. Eddie held onto you almost like he was scared of you fading away and deep sobs escaped from his chest. You felt his tears sodden your shirt and you just continued to hold him.
"I'm just so lost, Y/N. I've lost myself." He choked out in between the sobs and you felt his hands shake against your arms.
Two Rare Unknown Rembrandt Portraits Discovered in Private Collection
A pair of unknown and “exceptionally rare” portraits by Rembrandt have been discovered in a private collection in the UK.
The intimate paintings of relatives of the Dutch master are now expected to sell for between £5 million and £8 million ($6.25 million-$10 million) at auction.
Signed and dated 1635, the pictures are of an elderly husband and wife who were related to Rembrandt by marriage.
Measuring just under 8 inches high, the paintings depict wealthy plumber Jan Willemsz van der Pluym and his wife Jaapgen Carels, who were from a prominent family in the Dutch city of Leiden.
Their son Dominicus van der Pluym was married to Rembrandt’s cousin Cornelia van Suytbroec. The couple had one child, Karel van der Pluym, who is thought to have trained with Rembrandt and included the artist’s only surviving heir, Titus, in his will.
In 1635, the year the portraits were painted, the subjects acquired a garden next to that of Rembrandt’s mother in Leiden.
Experts at Christie’s auction house, which is handling the sale, say in a press release that the portraits have a “remarkable, virtually unbroken line of provenance.”
The artworks stayed within the sitters’ family until 1760, a year after the death of the couple’s great-grandson, Marten ten Hove. They then traveled to Warsaw, to the private collection of Count Vincent Potocki, before briefly entering the collection of Baron d’Ivry in Paris in 1820 and then James Murray, 1st Baron Glenlyon.
In June 1824, Murray put the artworks up for sale with Christie’s, where their listing described them as “Rembrandt – very spirited and finely colored.”
Since that sale, the paintings remained in Britain in the same family’s private collection and were unknown to experts. The current owners have not been named.
Henry Pettifer, international deputy chair of Old Master paintings at Christie’s, said in a telephone interview that the discovery was made a couple of years ago, as part of a “routine valuation to look at the contents of a house.”
“The pictures were immediately of terrific interest,” he said, adding that the owners were also taken by surprise.
“I don’t think they had looked into it,” he said. “They didn’t have expectations for the paintings.”
Pettifer said he had been “incredibly excited” to see the paintings, but “at that stage I didn’t jump to any conclusions.”
Details of the earlier sale at Christie’s in 1824 set the process rolling, followed by a long period of research at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where the portraits were investigated and underwent scientific analysis.
“What’s extraordinary is that the paintings were completely unknown. They had never appeared in any of the Rembrandt literature of the 19th or 20h century, so they were completely unknown,” said Pettifer.
The identities of the sitters were only confirmed by researchers at the Rijksmuseum.
The “small, very intimate, very spontaneous” nature of the paintings indicated a close relationship with the artist, Pettifer said.
“They are not grand, formal commissioned paintings,” he said. “I think they are the smallest portraits that he painted that we know of.”
The pictures are set to go on show in New York and Amsterdam next month, before returning to London for a pre-sale exhibition and the auction on July 6.
Historical Dutch names for storytelling (1700s-1980s)
Note: it was common for sons to get the first name of their father, and his father before him etcetera. But the nicknames would be different. For example: there could be 3 generations named Albertus but they would be called Albert, Bert and Bertus. Or the oldest could be called old Bert, or something like that.
MASCULINE
Hendrikus (Henricus, Hendrik, Henk, Henri)
Christianus (Christiaan, Chris)
Johannus (Johan, Hans, Jan, Jannus)
Jacobus (Jacob, Jakob)
Fransiscus (Frans, Frank)
Frederik (Fred, Alfredus)
Antonius (Anton, Antoon)
Albertus (Albert, Bert)
Adrianus (Adriaan, Ad, Aart)
Sebastiaan (Bastiaan, Bas)
Theodorus (Theo)
Wilhelmus (Willem, Wilhelm, Will)
Robertus (Robert, Rob)
Petrus (Peter, Piet, Pieter)
Paulus (Paul)
Martinus (Martin, Maarten, Marten, Martijn, Mathijs)
Marcellinus (Marcus, Marcel, Marco, Marc, Mark)
Marinus (Marius)
Arnoldus (Arnold)
Bernardus (Berend, Bernard)
Gerrit
Harry
Gerardus (Gerard, Geert, Gerhard)
Kornelis
Klaas
Leonardus (Leo)
Nicolaas (Nico, Niels)
Richard
Roelof (Roel)
Rogier
Ronaldus (Ronald, Roy)
Rudolph (Rudolf, Ruud, Rutger)
Stephanus (Stefan, Steven)
Vincent
Kees
Joris
Coenraad (Coen, Koen)
Floris
Teun
Daan (Daniel)
Abraham (Bram)
Barend
Diederik (Dirk, Dick)
Hugo