A three-quarter-length portrait of the Duke of Edinburgh, standing facing half to the right, his head turned to the front, with his hands clasped behind his back; wearing Windsor Uniform with the pale blue sash of the order of the Elephant. He is standing in the Grand Corridor at Windsor, with a sequence of marble busts on plinths flanking the walls of the corridor; the painting of Family of Queen Victoria by Laurits Tuxen to the right, and the portraits of the Family of George III by Thomas Gainsborough on the left.
This portrait was painted to mark the retirement of the Duke of Edinburgh from public duties in 2017 at the age of 96.  It depicts the Duke standing in a characteristic pose, with his hand clasped behind his back, wearing Windsor Uniform, with the pale blue sash and badge of the Danish Order of the Elephant. The impressive background setting of the Grand Corridor at Windsor and the order make close reference to the sitter’s ancestry. Prince Philip was born a prince of Greece and Denmark; his grandfather, George I of Greece was sister to Queen Alexandra, and his grandmother Olga, a member of the Russian Romanov dynasty. However, it is through his maternal line that he is closely connected to the British Royal Family. His grandmother, Princess Victoria of Hesse, was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and both his mother, Princess Alice and grandmother were born in the Tapestry Room situated at the end of the Corridor. The painting of Family of Queen Victoria in 1887 by the Danish artist, Laurits Tuxen to the right, includes both ancestors (RCIN 400500). To the left are a sequence of portraits of George III and his family, by Thomas Gainsborough. 

Shortly after its completion the portrait was included in an exhibition at Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark and there the Director and art historian, Mette Skougaard summed up Heimans’ methods and ambitions in portrait painting… Using traditional techniques and through the ‘mastery of complex composition his subjects are woven into their surroundings to create a multi-layered narrative environment…building a landscape of the soul.’
The artist recounted that in his short sitting with the Duke he attempted to capture something of the sitter’s personality - notably his charm and charisma - which are undoubtedly revealed in the sensitive portrait.

Ralph Heimans was born and trained in Sydney, Australia, studying architecture, and then fine art and mathematics. He continued to study drawing at the Julian Ashton School in Sydney. In 2012 he was commissioned to paint an official portrait of The Queen for Westminster Abbey to mark her Diamond Jubilee; here she is portrayed against a background of Westminster Abbey where she was crowned in 1953.