Bryan Organ

Bryan Organ (born 31 August 1935 in Leicester) is a British artist considered one of the leading and most innovative English portrait painters of the 20th century. His paintings have included portraits of prominent public figures and of members of the British royal family. Organ is also known for landscape paintings, such as St Pancras Station (Leicester New Walk Museum and Art Gallery), and lithographic studies of animals (Tate).

Organ studied at Loughborough College of Art and the Royal Academy Schools (1952–59), before returning to teach at Loughborough College of Art (1959–66). In 1967, Organ left the college and to continue painting as a full-time career. His first solo exhibition was at Leicester City Art Gallery (1958) when still a student. He has been represented by The Redfern Gallery since 1967.

Portraiture Bryan Organ became interested in portraiture in the mid-1960s, a time when the medium was unfashionable and largely shunned by any young ambitious artist. For Organ, portraiture was not a separate art: "A portrait is a picture, presenting just the same problems as a still life or a landscape or an abstract. And this is true irrespective of who the sitter is. The solutions may be different, of course, but essentially the end product must be judged as a work of art." In 1971, the National Portrait Gallery Director Roy Strong said: "In his role as face-maker Bryan Organ emerges as one of the two or three painters of his generation to make any significant statement, let alone display any enthusiasm for the despised art of the portrait."

Organ's first portrait, painted in 1966, was of the journalist and satirist Malcolm Muggeridge. It was, in Organ's words, '"not commissioned, but done because I wanted to in January 1966. I spent a considerable amount of time with him, observing the way he moves and gestures and speaks. After all, to anyone who has seen Muggeridge on the TV, the image he conjures up is not static, it's in movement all the time. So I made lots of studies and from these made a distillation, retaining recognizable characteristics but eliminating inessentials ... One is simplifying all the time. It's a lot easier to put everything in. The difficult part is seeing how much you can leave out."

Organ's landscapes in public collections include Hotel Timeo (1975) and Sicilian Window, as well as his reinterpretation of the John Everett Millais's Ophelia, Ophelia, 1974.

In 1970, Organ was commissioned by Lincoln's Inn to paint a portrait of Princess Margaret, HRH The Princess Margaret, in which the Princess was Royal Bencher.

In 1981, Organ was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery to paint Diana, Princess of Wales. She is depicted seated in the Yellow Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace. This is the only official portrait of the Princess. Prince Charles and Lady Diana were said to be "very pleased" with the portrait, which was completed and displayed just before their marriage). The paintings of Charles and Diana were described by the National Portrait Gallery's Director John Hayes as "a breakthrough in royal portraiture", as they showed a sharp contrast to the Gallery's collection of more traditional portraits of kings and queens. Without the adornments of crowns and elegant finery, these paintings offered a "subtle celebration of the modesty of a modern prince and monarchy", according to Tristram Hunt.

After its unveiling at the National Portrait Gallery, Princess Diana's portrait was slashed by a Northern Irish protester (29 August 1981). Paul Salmon, a Belfast student aged 20, lunged past guards and cut a diagonal slash in the painting, which ripped all the way down to the frame; he is quoted as saying: "I did it for Ireland." Elizabeth supported his art while they were married; they were divorced in 1981.