Official Paintings From Charles III’s World Tours Are Going on Public Display for the First Time Over 40 years, artists have accompanied Charles on his travels to 95 countries with only one directive: Paint whatever interests them Their Royal Highnesses on North Seymour Island, Richard Foster, 2009 Richard Foster / Royal Collection Trust In the spring of 1985, the British painter John Ward received an invitation from one of his students. Charles, the Prince of Wales, asked Ward—who had previously made sketches of the royal family at Balmoral Castle and painted the christenings of the prince’s sons, William and Harry—to join a royal visit to Italy as the official tour artist. His only task was to paint or draw whatever struck his fancy. Ward accepted the honor and joined up with the tour in Catania, a port city in Sicily, before sailing on a royal yacht up the coast of Italy to Venice. Ward’s work from the trip captures the White Ensign flag flapping in the wind as the tour makes its way north. Since Ward’s first tour, Charles III—who became king in 2022—has maintained the tradition of personally selecting and inviting an artist on his royal tours for four decades. For the 42 artists who have collectively visited 95 countries during 69 royal tours, the instructions have remained the same: Create what you like. The more than 70 artworks that resulted from these travels are going on public display this summer for the first time. “The King’s Tour Artists” will be on view at Buckingham Palace between July 10 and September 28, 2025. From the Afterdeck of HMY Britannia, John Ward, 1985 The Estate of the Artist / Royal Collection Trust “This fascinating group of works tells the story of 40 years of official travel and artistic patronage,” Kate Heard, curator of the exhibition, says in a statement. “The freedom given to each artist to capture a personal impression of the countries visited has led to the formation of a rich and varied collection. Encompassing landscapes, figure studies and still life subjects, these works are testament to His Majesty’s deep engagement with and encouragement of artists over the past four decades.” The most recent painting in the collection is Waratah and Eucalyptus, Australian National Botanic Gardens, created by Warwick Fuller during the 2024 royal tour to Australia and Samoa. Because Fuller had already been on three tours as an official artist, he was accustomed to the quick pace of each day. Instead of chasing after the royal entourage with his sketchpad, Fuller went directly to the last stop of the day, the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra. There, he was pointed towards the blazing bloom of the waratah flower, revered in Indigenous Australian culture for its ability to withstand bushfires. While on the 2000 royal tour to the Caribbean, Mary Anne Aytoun Ellis made a similar decision to travel ahead to Kaieteur Falls in Guyana, which had been given just 15 minutes in the official itinerary. Her painting, Gully, captures the towering waterfall in burnished earth tones. Trees, rocks and sky merge into the thundering waters as they plummet towards the earth. Waratah and Eucalyptus, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Warwick Fuller, 2024 Warwick Fuller / Royal Collection Trust While some artists painted striking landscapes, others captured humans and animals. For instance, Phillip Butah, who accompanied Charles to Kenya in 2023 during his first state visit as king, painted a trip to an elephant sanctuary in Nairobi National Park. Butah had first met Charles in 1998, when he became the youngest winner of the Prince of Wales’s Young Artists’ Award. Since then, Butah has been closely associated with the royal family. Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla, “are one of the most famous couples of our time, so it was fascinating for me to see the personal side of their relationship” during the trip to Kenya, as Butah tells Tatler’s Ben Jureidini. “It is so strong, and they are a great team.” Both Charles and Camilla have also dabbled in painting throughout their lives. Charles mostly sticks to watercolors, Tatler reports, because he doesn’t like to keep his security detail waiting.  Philip Butah makes a sketch of Charles III during a 2023 state visit to Kenya. Phil Noble / Pool / Getty Images The royal couple are the subject of Richard Foster’s painting Their Royal Highnesses on North Seymour Island, which he created while serving as the official artist of their 2009 tour of Chile, Brazil and Ecuador. Foster captures Charles and Camilla gazing out to sea from the island in the Galapagos, home to zero humans and 2,500 land iguanas. Ahead of the new exhibition, an accompanying book will be published on June 19. Titled The Art of Royal Travel: Journeys With the King, the volume includes about 100 illustrations from the tours, as well as behind-the-scenes recollections from the artists. “Some were at the start of their careers, others more established,” the Earl of Rosslyn, the book’s editor, says in the statement. “But when interviewed for this book, all were united in gratitude for the memorable artistic adventure it represented.” “The King’s Tour Artists” will be on view at Buckingham Palace in London from July 10 to September 28, 2025. 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