Jiawei Shen achieved much acclaim as an artist in China before having to leave his homeland in 1989. Born in Shanghai, he became an artist at age 20, producing patriotic images while working as a farmer with the People's Liberation Army in the early 1970s. Self-taught at first, he later studied at Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts and became a specialist in history paintings, many of which he produced for public collections. After arriving in Sydney, he supported himself by making sketches of passers-by at Darling Harbour. He was selected as an Archibald Prize finalist for the first time in 1993 and has been a sought-after portraitist ever since, creating works for clients such as Parliament House and participating in numerous solo and group exhibitions. ‘When I came here I was nothing … so any commission was very exciting. But for a long time now, I’ve been interested in making paintings that show the big things’, he says.
He commenced work on this portrait of Tasmanian-born Queen Mary of Denmark (b. 1972) in Sydney in February 2005, when the then Crown Princess made her first royal tour of her homeland. The sitting took place in a Circular Quay hotel suite boasting an excellent view of the Sydney Opera House, which, being the work of Danish architect Jørn Utzon, Shen included as a symbol of his subject’s dual Australian and Danish identity. The column to her left is based on the architecture of Copenhagen’s Amalienborg Palace, and she wears a blue sash with the insignia of the Knight of the Order of the Elephant, Denmark’s highest honour. Given the limited time available for the sitting, Shen took many photographs of the Princess and made several studies and sketches, which were acquired along with the finished painting in September 2005.
Commissioned with funds provided by Mary Isabel Murphy 2005
© Commonwealth of Australia
This is an oil painting of Princess Mary of Denmark, painted in 2005 by Jiawei Shen.
The gold framed portrait is approximately two point five metres high and one point five metres wide a full length portrait of Princess Mary bathed in natural light.
To the left a large ivory and burnished gold column on an imposing rectangular base. The ivory shaft of the column disappears up and out past the portraits top edge.
Directly behind Mary is the corner of a room whose walls are a mixture of peach, muted yellow and hints of green. On our right is a sweeping view of the Sydney Opera House.
The bay and the Opera House are elegantly obscured by gossamer curtain floating ever so lightly back into the interior where Mary is standing.
On the floor large square tiles in gold, peach and green issues are separated by darker grout. They dissolve on a diagonal out to the right, into the view of the sea and the Opera House, as if Mary is standing on a balcony high above the water.
Mary is angled towards us, facing the window, her right cheek is turned as though we have just said something engaging her attention.
Her dark brown shoulder length hair is combed off her face, swept behind her ears with the weight of the soft girls resting on her right shoulder.
She has hazel eyes and sculpted brows. Her right eyebrow raised slightly higher than the left. She has a porcelain complexion and pink lips. All of her features accentuated by artfully applied makeup.
Her mouth is open in the hint of a smile, straight white teeth only just visible. From her ears hang diamonds and blue sapphires, each comprising five equally sized clusters of teardrops. Her earrings perfectly match the blue of her dress.
The "V" shape neckline of her sea blue sleeveless dress follows the gentle curve of her breasts. A length of ruched dark fabric twines around her slight torso, and the light blue of her bodice. At the hips another wrap of the same fabric meets the bottom splayed edges of a thin formal sash that falls from her left shoulder down her right hip, were a tiny white elephant is suspended.
She clasps her hands loosely in front, elbow slightly bent, though her left arm is out of view. A ring with a large sea blue sapphire rests on the ring finger of her right hand. The pleated folds of her full length skirt fall in swathes from her hips to the floor obscuring her feet. The skirt's light fabric catches the same slight breeze passing through the curtain from outside.
Audio description written by Emma Bedford and voiced by Carol Wellman Kelly
Mary I. Murphy (4 portraits supported)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Mette Skougaard and Thomas Lyngby bring eloquent context to Ralph Heimans’ portraits of Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark.
28 September 2016
The Chairman, Board, Director and all the staff of the National Portrait Gallery mourn the loss of our Benefactor, Mary Isabel Murphy.
