Earlier watercolours and drawings

Soon after the accession of King George VI in 1936, Queen Elizabeth began to form a small but well-chosen collection of eighteenth and early nineteenth-century British watercolours and drawings. A number of works, such as those by Thomas Gainsborough and John Varley, reflect her wider interest in the landscape tradition. Others, such as the watercolour by Michael 'Angelo' Rooker of Castle Acre Priory, near Sandringham n Norfolk, and the two meticulously detailed works here by David Roberts, show her taste for precise draughtsmanship and architectural subjects. As a collector the Queen Mother also took a particular interest in works with royal significance, such as the sketches by Sir David Wilkie for a portrait of Queen Victoria as a young girl.