Considering she was the nation’s monarch for a history-making 70 years, it’s fair to say many of us felt like we really knew the late Queen Elizabeth II – but artist Frances Segelman can claim she knew her in a way few others did.
This is because the celebrated artist worked privately with the Queen for hours to make a perfect replica of her face in a sculpture.
Speaking to Metro.co.uk, Frances has now shared some fascinating insight into what it’s like holding court one-on-one with someone as famous as Queen Elizabeth II, and reveals how the busy roads outside of Buckingham Palace made her “worry”.
(Image credit: Anwar Hussein Collection/Getty Images)
Frances told the publication that during one of their sittings “cars were going round Buckingham Palace. The Queen was terribly worried about anybody getting run over.”
“She said, ‘I really worry about that a lot. I worry about that so much because they’re taking photographs and not looking where they’re going.'”
The central location of Buckingham Palace – located right near the royal parks, Green Park and Hyde Park, make it a popular tourist attraction, and it could be partly why Prince William and Kate Middleton have reportedly decided against ever moving in there, even after becoming King and Queen.
Instead, the Wales’s are thought to be moving into Forest Lodge, an eight-bedroom house on Great Windsor Park. This could remain their “forever home” – with Buckingham Palace being used as their London based when needed.
(Image credit: Anthony Devlin/AFP/Getty Images)
Frances wasn’t just lucky enough to create sculptures of the late Queen – she also sat and created busts of Prince Philip and King Charles, too.
Of her time with the late Prince Philip, she told the outlet, “I was nervous, so to make conversation, I said to him, ‘I think I’m going to do you with a smile.’ Well, he absolutely didn’t want that. He said, ‘Absolutely not. I absolutely hate all those cheesy-looking pictures or sculptures.'”
Despite this, Frances recalls the late Duke of Edinburgh as being “very easy… He also spoke to me about going on painting holidays.”
Frances has had the rare privilege of private moments with two monarchs, though she made Charles’s sculpture when he was still the Prince of Wales, over four sittings which took place at his Highgrove residence. Of the now King, Frances had only positive things to say.
She hailed King Charles as an “extremely sensitive and caring” person who spoke with her about the current state of affairs in the world.
She told the Metro, “He was talking about the world, worrying about everyone. He just came over as a very, very special, caring man. Very sensitive too.”
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