Anthony Blunt by Miranda Carter

Author:Miranda Carter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Books

The King told Blunt that when he saw a portrait he never knew if the name on the bottom was the artist or the sitter, or so Blunt reported to his brother Wilfrid. Blunt also recalled George’s response at seeing the British painter John Piper’s wild grey and green semi-abstract paintings of Windsor Castle for the first time: ‘Bad luck with the weather, what?!’ Another favourite story of Wilfrid’s went that during the war his brother had been given a lift to London by the King. As they had passed Runnymede, George VI had said, ‘You know, Blunt, that’s where all the trouble began!’ In later years Blunt denied the story. Wilfrid did not entirely believe the denial.

Blunt did, however, like Queen Elizabeth. She belonged to a type of powerful, grand, aristocratic lady, couching an iron and imperious will in apparent sweetness, for which Blunt had a particular weakness. Of all the family, she showed most interest in art, liked a ‘well-painted picture’, and had even bought a Duncan Grant. Alan Baker, the young art student who became Blunt’s boyfriend in the late 1940s, met her on his one visit to Buckingham Palace. Blunt was showing him a Van Dyck that was about to be cleaned.

We were both on the floor and he was pointing out where there might be overpainting, and a sweet little voice said, ‘Oh Anthony, I hope that hasn’t got to go. That’s one of my favourite pictures.’ It was the Queen Mother. I scrambled to my feet and was about to leave, and she said, ‘Oh no, no, no’, and we ended up having tea in her apartment. They were obviously very friendly. He liked her a lot.

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