Portrait of Sir Peter Michael

Henry Mee was born in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire. He is particularly well known for his portraits. He studied at University of Leeds (1975–9) and his teachers included Lawrence Gowing, Tim Clark, Griselda Pollock, Francis Fraschina and Terry Atkinson.

Mee considers himself “a figurative painter in the English tradition, working from life and drawing being of paramount importance”. He made a big impression with his exhibition British Eminences: Portraits of our Age, at Sotheby’s London, which opened on 23rd May 1990. The Arts Minister Richard Luce MP opened the show and unveiled Mee’s portrait of HM The Queen Elizabeth II. This show was also exhibited at the Hop Exchange, 24 Southwark Street. Group exhibitions included nudes at Browse & Darby, 1994.

His main works included HM The Queen and former prime ministers Margaret Thatcher, Harold Wilson, Alec Douglas-Home and Denis Healey (Palace of Westminster Collection). On 28th September 1995, the British Red Cross unveiled Henry Mee’s portrait of Princess Diana at Christie’s London. The Princess sat for Mee at Kensington Palace. In September 2001, The Fine Art Society in New Bond Street, London, held a retrospective exhibition of Henry Mee’s Portraits of Eminent Britons. Henry Mee is married with two sons and lives in Hampstead.

This work was commissioned directly from the artist.