Freud’s portrait of ‘Brigadier’ set to sell for $30m

Visitors to the Lough Eske Castle Hotel in Donegal will notice a large painting titled The Brigadier. It's a portrait of Andrew Parker Bowles, a former British army officer and the ex-husband of Camilla Parker Bowles, the woman now married to Prince Charles.

The painting is by Lucian Freud, the renowned, German-born English artist who died in 2011. But the Lough Eske painting is a copy – which is just as well for the hotel's insurance policy because the original is worth an estimated US$30 million and will go under the hammer in a major art auction at Christie's in New York next month.

According to Christie’s, “for his portrait of Parker Bowles, Freud abandoned his common practice of painting his sitters naked, instead choosing to depict his subject in his dress uniform”.

In a catalogue note about the painting, the auction house said “the sumptuous decoration of Andrew Parker Bowles’ uniform is portrayed in resplendent detail, indicative of the subject’s status within the upper echelons of the British Establishment”.

Page boy

Andrew Parker Bowles, born in 1939, was a page boy at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, and in 1960, at the age of 21, was commissioned into the Royal Horse Guards.

During a long career in the British army he served in Northern Ireland in the 1970s during the height of the Troubles; was an aide to the governor of Rhodesia during that country’s transition to independence (as Zimbabwe) in 1979-1980; and between 1981-1983 was the commanding officer of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment (the Queen’s official bodyguard) when four soldiers and seven horses from his regiment were killed by bombs planted by the IRA in London’s Hyde Park.

Later in his career he was promoted to Lieut-Col Commanding the Household Cavalry and Silver Stick in Waiting to Her Majesty the Queen (a largely ceremonial position as a personal bodyguard to the royal household), before retiring from the army as a brigadier in 1994.

Distinguished horseman

In addition to his army career, Parker Bowles was also a distinguished horseman and was a finisher in the 1969 Grand National on his horse, The Fossa. He was married for more than 20 years to Camilla Parker Bowles, before the couple divorced and Camilla went on to marry Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, and become Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

He reputedly met the artist Lucian Freud through their shared love of horses. Although he agreed to sit for the portrait he didn't own it, and the painting was acquired by a wealthy American art collector and investment banker Damon Mezzacappa, who died in Florida earlier this year.

Commenting on the painting, his son Tom Parker Bowles said: "Even if the sitter were not my father, I'd still be struck by the beauty, quiet majesty and sheer technical brilliance of this picture. But Freud also captures something about my father that is not possible to describe. It's not a pose, or a facial expression, rather something closer to his essence, his soul. It goes way beyond the merely representational and ends up being a complete portrait of my father in every way".

So why is this famous portrait – albeit a copy – in a Donegal hotel? Parker Bowles is a friend and business associate of Lough Eske's owner, Northern Ireland developer Pat Doherty, chairman of Harcourt Developments. Mr Doherty also had his portrait painted by Freud – in 2006 – and a copy of this painting titled Donegal Man is also on display in the Lough Eske. The original, which has not been publicly valued, is believed to be worth in the region of €5 million.

The Brigadier by Lucian Freud will be auctioned at Christie's, New York, on November 10th.