Prince George is the latest in a long royal line of talented artists

As kingfishers go, it has a lively, almost raffish, quality. The feathers on the top of his head are spiked up like a punk’s, and his blue and yellow feathers look ruffled, as though he has just settled from flight. He has personality.

It is difficult enough to draw a kingfisher that looks even vaguely like its subject, let alone render it accurately and imbue it with character. So it is all the more remarkable that the artist in this case was just 12 years old: Prince George.

The picture of the bird appears in the latest issue of Country Life, which has been guest-edited by George’s father, Prince William. Mark Hedges, the magazine’s editor, says that he knew the illustration would “break the internet” as soon as he saw it.

“I had gone to see William at Windsor Palace, and we had discussed what he wanted to have in the magazine,” Hedges recalls. “Then in June I was sent this picture George had done in the Spring for inclusion. I looked at it, and I knew at that moment that it was going to be a big deal and that the picture would instantly go global. Not only because it’s incredibly good – and not just good for a 12-year-old – but because we don’t know that much about Prince George.”

Thanks to his kingfisher, we know a little more. In showing an interest – and aptitude – for art, George, now 13, is following a storied tradition, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, great-grandfather and dozens of other family members over many generations.

King Charles is an accomplished watercolourist and has often spoken about the peace he finds in focusing on a piece of artwork.

“Painting like this is almost meditative in the sense that you enter another world,” he told Royal Paintbox, a 2013 documentary about artists in the royal family.

He said he was originally inspired “to look and observe” by his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, who was a keen art collector.

“We walk away and shuffle off our mortal coil, but these things live on,” Charles added. “That’s what’s so riveting about looking at [work by] other members of my family in the past. It’s this feeling that there they were, doing the painting, and that stays behind. It’s still you. It’s part of you, still there.”

Prints, jigsaws, and other items featuring the King’s artwork are today sold through the Highgrove website. The monarch’s efforts are estimated to have raised more than £6 million ($11.6 million) to date, and he has donated the proceeds to charity.

In 2000, he also founded the Royal Drawing School. “Charles has been instrumental in the education of young artists,” says the art historian Katy Hessel. “His school offers the best – and free – postgraduate art education in the country.”

The King’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, also dabbled in art as a girl. In October, a colouring book of hers, including a picture of the Pied Piper from 1934, when she was eight, and signed “Lillibet”, was sold by a gallery in Toronto for $CA9375 ($9616).

Although Elizabeth II did not share her eldest son’s private interest in painting, she was an enthusiastic steward of the arts. In 1962, during her reign, the Queen’s Gallery opened at Buckingham Palace as a showcase for the Royal Collection. It was expanded 40 years later.

Her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, was a talented painter. Although he also tended to focus on landscapes, he depicted more intimate scenes, too, such as The Queen at Breakfast, a painting of his wife from 1965.

As well as creating his own works, the duke commissioned other artists. In 1956-57, he invited artist Edward Seago to accompany him on the royal yacht Britannia on a trip to Antarctica and the South Atlantic; many of the resulting paintings adorn the walls at Balmoral.

Ingrid Seward, the editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine and author of a book about the Prince and Princess of Wales, says art has long provided an escape from the treadmill of royal duties.

“It’s something the royals have always done,” she says. “It’s something you can get on with, and it is a private thing. You can set [an easel] up anywhere you like, and people aren’t going to come buzzing around you.

“They have always painted and drawn. The secret is that it is a solitary pastime, and they do not get much time for ‘solitary’. You can really get into it and block the world out when you are sketching [or painting].”

A centuries-old tradition

The tradition of artistic royals is centuries old. The royal collection includes works by royalty dating back at least to Mary, Queen of Scots, whose embroidery of a cat with a mouse is thought to date to her time as a prisoner in England. King George III’s daughter, Princess Elizabeth, was a talented amateur artist who painted decorative murals.

In Victorian times, art became a controversial topic among the royal family.

Victoria was a prolific painter, and the royal collection includes more than 4000 of her works over a 64-year period, including a self-portrait from 1832 when she was 13. Her husband, Albert, was also a keen artist; as newlyweds, they learnt etching together.

For their sixth child, Princess Louise, however, art was a more serious matter. She wanted to be a sculptor at a time when women were meant to stick to painting and drawing.

“Her mother thought sculpting was a masculine art form, so she found it difficult to get her parents to admit she could be a professional sculptor,” says Louise’s biographer, Lucinda Hawksley.

“For the rest of the family it might have been therapeutic, but for her, it was a desperate desire to be a proper artist.”

When she was eventually allowed to pursue her passion, she was a star.

“She was a really big name in the art world, known as ‘the People’s Princess’ 100 years before Diana was thought of,” says Hawksley. “But the royal archives have tried very hard to suppress her story because she was very controversial and outspoken. She spoke out against her mother and was a huge social reformer.”

There may be a political element to Prince George’s kingfisher, too. The Prince and Princess of Wales have both been keen supporters of the environment, and spoken about the dangers of excessive screen time. A pencil portrait of a kingfisher would seem like a good alternative to hours on the iPad.

“The picture demonstrates that George is a remarkable artist, but it is also about nature,” Hedges says. “Which is obviously something both of his parents have encouraged him to enjoy and take solace from.”

Jackie Morris, the wildlife artist and illustrator of The Book of Birds, says kingfishers are a particularly elusive subject. “When you see one in the wild, it’s like they fill your whole eye up,” she says. “They’re so small, fine and otherworldly. It’s such a difficult thing to capture. [George’s] is very solid. It’s a bit shaggy, but maybe it has just come out of the water and is having a shake.”

Not everyone was wowed by George’s kingfisher. Even at 13, artists cannot escape critics.

Online commenters were swift to note that the Prince’s picture bears a close resemblance to a drawing of a kingfisher from an online drawing course. But even the greatest artists started by copying others, and it still takes unusual skill to follow a tutorial.

Besides, not every member of the royal family has the art gene. Prince William has admitted to being terrible at drawing. “My wife is the arty one. And my children are artier than I am,” he said in 2024.

On the evidence of George’s kingfisher, he was not wrong.

The Telegraph, London

Read more royal news:

• Analysis: Harry and Meghan can’t escape her father’s shadow
• Charges laid: Meghan’s father in court over alleged child sexual abuse material
• Analysis: Sickening claims against Thomas Markle set to test the royals
• Fills my heart with horror’: King expresses sorrow over slavery

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.