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The King's Grand Staircase - all images on the walls are paint effects.
Painted by William Kent 1726 and still stunningly modern. |
Inspired by Lucy Worsley's book, "Courtiers- the Secret History of the Georgian Court",
my appetite was whetted to visit Kensington
Palace. In particular, I
wanted to see the King's Grand Staircase with its cheeky portraits of Georgian
courtiers captured in a strikingly modern poses.
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Lucy Worsley's captivating book
about the intrigue in the Georgian Court. |
The sweeping mural that lines the
staircase shows a snapshot of the royal household from Peter the Wild-Boy to
the King's mistress, from Mohammed (the King's advisor) to the artist William Kent who
painted the scene. To enter the hall and walk up the staircase, is
spell-binding and I couldn't help but stop and stare in wonder. A vibrancy and sense of life oozes
from the walls such that you can hear the scuttle of silk slippers and gossip
whispered behind hands.
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A better view of the Grand Staircase (portrait mural to the left
and at the head of the stairs.) |
There is a sense of fun, playfulness and intrigue about
these portraits that must have caused huge a stir at the time. Added to that,
I imagine being an outsider visiting George I, and seeing portraits of plotting courtiers, must have been terribly intimidating.
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The Grand Staircase photographed around 1870, during Victoria's reign.
Victoria was born at Kensington palace and it was here that she
learnt of her acsession to the throne.
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Kensington Palace has
undergone several reincarnations. In the 1600's it
started out as a modest mansion, Nottingham House, in what was a rural landscape
near London.
When William III wanted a country retreat from the pressures of Whitehall, he found
this the ideal solution, bought the property for 20,000 pounds and
employed Christopher Wren to redesign it.
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Queen Victoria in her coronation robes - set in front of Kensington Palace.
The princess was living here when she learnt of her ascession to the throne. |
Decades came and went and William's Kensington Palace
fell into disuse until George I arrived from Germany. Even though the building
was by now neglected in poor repair, the new king declared "I like it very much" and set about a raft of renovation
and remodelling. The most stunning of these innovations was employing the
controversial, up-and-coming artist, William Kent.
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One of the trompe l'oiel paint effects on the staircase.
Apologies for the under exposure. |
My reaction on seeing Kent's
staircase mural was bewilderment. I was confused. The fresco style and trompe
l'eoil effects so fresh and flirtatious that I thought I'd
wandered into a modern interpretation of Kent's work. But no, these playful visual
effects are the real thing! [Sadly, I have found no copyright free images to
show you. All power to Kensington
Palace for allowing
photography, albeit without flash, so please excuse the underexposed photos
from my pocket camera - but I wanted to give you a flavour of what I saw.]
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A pitiful photograph (by me!) of a wonderful paint effect - and this
isnt even the main event (which are the courtiers - sadly too dark to photograph) |
If ever you have the opportunity to visit Kensington Palace, I can highly recommend it - worthwhile for the staircase alone! Kensington Palace has so many extraordinary stories of royalty and intrigue to tell - more of this in future posts when some of the gossip and scandal is revealed!
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| William III, Kensington Palace. |
