The Yellow Drawing Room is a room in Buckingham Palace. It is noted for its

Chinoiserie (, ; loanword from French ''chinoiserie'', from ''chinois'', "Chinese"; ) is the European interpretation and imitation of Chinese and other East Asian artistic traditions, especially in the decorative arts, garden design, architecture, literatu ...

decorative scheme and has been the setting for many portraits of members of the British royal family.

Location

The room is at the west end of the Great Gallery on the first floor of the palace and overlooks the forecourt. The room was created as part of

Edward Blore Edward Blore (13 September 1787 – 4 September 1879) was a 19th-century English landscape and architectural artist, architect and antiquary. Early career He was born in Derby, the son of the antiquarian writer Thomas Blore. Blore's bac ...

's development of the palace in the 1840s. The Chinese Luncheon Room is at the opposite end, with the Centre Room in between. The room interconnects with a suite of bedrooms and dressing rooms for visitors. The name of the room derives from the

amber Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In M ...

-coloured satin

damask Damask (; ar, دمشق) is a reversible patterned fabric of silk, wool, linen, cotton, or synthetic fibers, with a pattern formed by weaving. Damasks are woven with one warp yarn and one weft yarn, usually with the pattern in warp-faced satin ...

that hung in the room in the 19th-century. The room is in height, and is roughly square. A number of pieces from the Yellow Drawing Room were among 120 objects from Buckingham Palace that were loaned to the

Royal Pavilion The Royal Pavilion, and surrounding gardens, also known as the Brighton Pavilion, is a Grade I listed former royal residence located in Brighton, England. Beginning in 1787, it was built in three stages as a seaside retreat for George, Princ ...

for two years from September 2019. The pieces were displayed at the pavilion where they had originally been placed after their acquisition by

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

. The pieces were removed from the Yellow Drawing Room during work on the East Wing of Buckingham Palace.

Decoration

Charles Knight's 1843 guide to London described the room as the "most superb of the whole" of the rooms on the floor and noted that it was decorated with full length portraits of the royal family painted on panels. The ''

Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'' appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, and ceased publication ...

'' described the room as "the most superb of the entire range of rooms" of the western front of the palace in 1844, and likened its appearance to the drawing room of the

Reform Club The Reform Club is a private members' club on the south side of Pall Mall in central London, England. As with all of London's original gentlemen's clubs, it comprised an all-male membership for decades, but it was one of the first all-male ...

on Pall Mall. Sculptural

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

s by William Pitts were a feature of the room in the 1840s. A series of twelve reliefs on the "origin and progress of pleasure" decorated the room. The individual reliefs have been described in sequence as depicting; ''Love Awakening the Soul to Pleasure'', ''the Soul in the Bower of Fancy'', ''the Pleasure of Decoration'', ''the Invention of Music'', ''the Pleasure of Music'', ''the Dance'', ''the Masquerade'', ''the Drama'', ''the contest for the Palm'', ''the Palm resigned'', ''the Struggle for the Laurel'' and ''the Laurel obtained''. The ''Illustrated London News'' regretted the addition of medallion portraits of royal family members that broke up the frieze. The

chandelier A chandelier (; also known as girandole, candelabra lamp, or least commonly suspended lights) is a branched ornamental light fixture designed to be mounted on ceilings or walls. Chandeliers are often ornate, and normally use incandescent ...

in the Yellow Drawing Room was formerly hung in the Music Room of the Royal Pavilion.Clifford Smith, pp. 223. The room was redecorated in yellow silk for the visit of French Emperor

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A neph ...

and his spouse, the Empress Eugénie, in 1855 when it was used as the Emperor's reception room. The couple stayed at Buckingham Palace for three days. The ''Illustrated London News'' described the decoration of the room as "incongruous" owing to the addition of the chinoiserie furniture from the Royal Pavilion.

Chinoiserie

The room contains many objects from the

decorative scheme by

Frederick Crace Frederick Crace (1779 – 18 September 1859) was an English interior decorator, who worked for George IV when Prince of Wales, for whom he created the chinoiserie interiors of the Brighton Pavilion. Crace was also a collector of maps and t ...

for the

in Brighton. The Centre Room and Chinese Drawing Room are also decorated in a similar style. The pieces were bought to Buckingham Place after the 1850 sale of the pavilion; and incorporated into rooms at the palace under the direction of Prince Albert. The wallpaper in the Yellow Drawing Room was supplied in 1817 for the saloon of the Royal Pavilion, the wallpaper was ordered by

, and rediscovered in the palace in the 20th century. It was hung under Queen Mary's redecoration of the room in the 1920s. The wallpaper was removed for conservation in 2020; its removal took a month. Following conservation the wallpaper should not require further care for 100 years. The wallpaper depicts a Chinese garden with birds with distinctive plumages and butterflies as well as fruit trees and shrubs. The decorative scheme of the wallpaper is divided between two borders; the upper has tall green jars and hanging baskets with magnolias and peonies, the lower border features wading birds and tall lotus plants. The room has a chimney piece in the Chinese style from the Saloon at the Royal Pavilion. It was made by Samuel Parker to a design by Robert Jones in 1822 at a cost of £922 (). It has nodding mandarins wearing dresses of varnished metal in niches and fearsome winged

ormolu Ormolu (; from French ''or moulu'', "ground/pounded gold") is the gilding technique of applying finely ground, high-carat gold–mercury amalgam to an object of bronze, and for objects finished in this way. The mercury is driven off in a kiln lea ...

dragons A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

. The mounted Chinese celadon candelabra on the fireplace also came from the saloon. The

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

of the mantelpiece depicts two serpents approaching a sunflower with two winged dragons climbing the steel columns that support the mantelpiece. The Rock Clock on the fireplace was originally situated in the Music Room of the pavilion. Its design has been attributed to Sébastien Slodtz. It depicts a dragon being attacked by

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmos ...

wrapped around a rock and palm tree.

Juno Juno commonly refers to: * Juno (mythology), the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods * ''Juno'' (film), 2007 Juno may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters *Juno, in the film ''Jenny, Juno'' *Juno, in the ...

is atop the dial, with

Cupid In classical mythology, Cupid (Latin Cupīdō , meaning "passionate desire") is the god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus and the god of war Mars. He is also known in L ...

shown embracing a peacock. A pair of tables in the chinoiserie style stand either side of the chimney piece. One of the tables is French, and dates from c.1780; it was originally part of the Chinese Room at

Carlton House Carlton House was a mansion in Westminster, best known as the town residence of King George IV. It faced the south side of Pall Mall, and its gardens abutted St James's Park in the St James's district of London. The location of the house, no ...

. The other table is English, and is a copy of the French table; it was made for the Music Room Gallery at the Royal Pavilion in 1819 by Edward Bailey. A set of chairs made by Bailey & Sanders in the room were originally situated in the Banqueting Room Gallery at the pavilion. The room is home to a pair of Chinese

pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoi ...

s in porcelain on Spode bases. The pagodas sit either side of a

pietra dura ''Pietra dura'' () or ''pietre dure'' () ( see below), called parchin kari or parchinkari ( fa, ) in the Indian Subcontinent, is a term for the inlay technique of using cut and fitted, highly polished colored stones to create images. It is c ...

-topped table made by Morel & Seddon; it was originally intended for

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

's Crimson Drawing Room. A matching pair of pagodas stood in the Principal Corridor of the palace in the 1930s.

Portraits setting

The room has been the setting for numerous portraits of members of the British royal family.

Terence Cuneo Terence Tenison Cuneo RGI FGRA (1 November 1907 – 3 January 1996) was a prolific English painter noted for his scenes of railways, horses and military actions. He was also the official artist for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 ...

recalled photographing the four-year-old

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

in the Yellow Drawing Room in 1953 as part of his preparations for the official portrait of the

coronation of Elizabeth II The coronation of the British monarch, coronation of Elizabeth II took place on 2 June 1953 at Westminster Abbey in London. She acceded to the throne at the age of 25 upon the death of her father, George VI, on 6 February 1952, being Proclamati ...

. Charles asked to photograph Cuneo in turn, and was hoisted by Cuneo onto a ladder, much to the consternation of Cuneo and his nurse, Nanny Lightbody. Bryan Organ used the room as the setting for his portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1981. Justin Mortimer's 1997 abstract portrait ''The Queen'' was commissioned by the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

. The

light art Light art or The Art of Light is generally referring to a visual art form in which (physical) light is the main, if not sole medium of creation. Uses of the term differ drastically in incongruence; definitions, if existing, vary in several asp ...

ist

Chris Levine Chris Levine (born 1960) is a UK-based artist, working in the field of light art. Chris Levine is a light artist with a multi-disciplinary approach that harnesses a diverse array of technology with the intention of revealing the ways in which ...

took 10,000 images in the Yellow Drawing Room of

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

over two sittings to create his 2004 hologram, ''Equanimity''. This was the first 3D holographic portrait of the Queen.

Rolf Harris Rolf Harris (born 30 March 1930) is an Australian entertainer whose career has encompassed work as a musician, singer-songwriter, composer, comedian, actor, painter and television personality. He often used unusual instruments in his performan ...

painted the Queen in the room for his portrait to mark her 80th birthday in 2005.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from El ...

posed in the room for his 2012 portrait by painter Jemma Phipps. Darren Baker's 2011 portrait of the Queen in the Yellow Drawing Room was commissioned to mark the 90th anniversary of the

Royal British Legion The Royal British Legion (RBL), formerly the British Legion, is a British charity providing financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependants, as well as all others in n ...

and depicted her wearing five remembrance poppies and showing the time of 11 am on her wristwatch to symbolise the armistice that ended World War I.

References

*Healey, Edma (1997). ''The Queen's House: A Social History of Buckingham Palace''. London: Penguin Group. {{ISBN, 0-7181-4089-3. *Clifford Smith, Harold (1931). ''Buckingham Palace: Its Furniture, Decoration & History'' London: Country Life Buckingham Palace Individual rooms Chinese art