Henry Mee

Mee read Fine Art at the University of Leeds awarded a place by Professor Sir Lawrence Gowing, graduating in 1979.^[1]

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

On 23 May 1990 Arts Minister Richard Luce MP opened Mee's one man show British Eminencies: Portraits of our Age at Sotheby's London and unveiled his portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.^[2]

The novelist Anthony Powell wrote the accompanying catalogue descriptions of the 31 paintings.^[3][4][5] His sitters were: the Queen; Lord Carrington; the Princess Royal; Lord Wilson of Rievaulx; Lord Home of the Hirsel; Lord Hailsham of Saint Marylebone; Lord Armstrong of Ilminster; Baroness Park of Monmouth (Principal of Somerville College, Oxford); Professor Dorothy Hodgkin (Chancellor University of Bristol); Lord Penney of East Hendred; Lord Zuckerman of Burnham Thorpe; Admiral Lord Fieldhouse of Gosport; Admiral Sir John Woodward; Sir John Harvey Jones (Chairman of ICI); Sir Peter Walters (Chairman of BP); Lord Forte of Ripley; Sir Yehudi Menuhin; Anthony Powell; Sir Hugh Casson; Sir Roger de Grey (President of the Royal Academy); Sir Richard Attenborough; Sir John Mills; Sir Peter Hall (Director of the National Theatre); Sir Robin Day; Sir Peter Imbert (Commissioner, Metropolitan Police); General Sir Frank Kitson; Robert Runcie (Archbishop of Canterbury); Neil MacGregor (Director of the National Gallery); Lord Denning of Whitchurch; and Lord King of Wartnaby.^{[6][7][8][9][10]}

The Parliamentary Works of Art Committee commissioned Mee to paint Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Ministers Lord (Harold) Wilson, and Lord (Alec) Douglas-Home, Lord (Denis) Healey and the Queen.^{[11][12][13][14][15][16]}

On 28 September 1995, the British Red Cross unveiled Henry Mee's portrait of Princess Diana at Christie's London. he Princess sat for Mee at Kensington Palace.^[17][18][19]

In September 2001, the Fine Art Society London held a retrospective exhibition, Henry Mee: Portraits of Eminent Britons.

Lord Bragg wrote the catalogue notes for New British Eminencies. His sitters were: Prime Minister Boris Johnson; Governor of the Bank of England Lord (Mervyn) King; Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne; First Secretary of State Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Lord (William) Hague of Richmond; Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Lord (Kenneth) Clarke of Nottingham; Lord (Alistair) Darling of Roulanish (Chancellor of the Exchequer); Alastair Campbell (Downing Street Director of Communications and Strategy); General Sir Mike Jackson (Chief of the General Staff); David Miliband (Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs); Lord (Chris) Patten (Governor of Hong Kong 1992-97, Chancellor Oxford University, Chairman BBC Trust); Sir Vince Cable (Secretary of State for Business, President of the Board of Trade); The Baroness (Eliza) Manningham-Buller (Director General of MI5); author Baroness (PD) James of Holland Park; Sir George Martin (Beatles Producer, Parlophone); The Lord (Melvyn) Bragg of Wigton (Chancellor University of Leeds, Editor of the South Bank Show); Gerald Scarfe; and Lord in Appeal in Ordinary Lord (Leonard) Hoffmann of Chedworth.^[20]

Henry Mee is married with two sons and lives in Hampstead.