Posts made in July, 2025

Michael Noakes: Painting the People Who Shaped History

This July, Windsor Auctions is proud to present a remarkable collection of original watercolours by the late Michael Noakes (1933–2018), one of Britain’s most distinguished portrait and landscape painters. Best known for his portraits of royalty, political leaders, and cultural icons, Noakes captured the likenesses – and more importantly, the character – of some of the most recognisable figures of the 20th and early 21st century. From intimate sittings with Queen Elizabeth II to sketching in the Oval Office with President Clinton, Noakes had a rare gift: his subjects not only sat still for him – they opened up. His brush revealed a quieter truth, one found in the crease of a smile or the weight of a pause.   A Life in Portrait Educated at Downside and the Royal Academy Schools, Noakes built a career that brought him into the company of kings, popes, and prime ministers. He was commissioned to paint Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, King Charles III, Princess Anne, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope Benedict XVI – among many others. He painted Sir Alec Guinness and Sir Roger Bannister, Dame Judi Dench and Frank Sinatra (who proudly kept Noakes’ album artwork for Portrait of Sinatra in his personal collection). His portraits hang in the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Collection, the Vatican, and private homes across the globe. Yet for all this prestige, Noakes remained deeply human – a man as intrigued by the rhythms of daily life as by the grandeur of state.   A Year with the Queen One of his most extraordinary projects was a year spent following Queen Elizabeth II throughout 1999, capturing her life not through grand oil paintings but through a vivid diary of drawings and watercolours. The project became The Daily Life of the Queen: An Artist’s Diary, a book authored by his wife, Dr. Vivien Noakes, and published with the Queen’s full support. Noakes’ access was unprecedented – and unrestricted. The resulting watercolours are a quiet triumph: private, observational, and personal. They reveal not only the public figure, but the woman behind the crown.   The Collection at Auction The upcoming timed auction (16–27 July) presents over 200 of these original watercolours. This is a...