Diana, Princess of Wales
Richard Foster
1986 oil on canvas

For almost twenty years Princess Diana encapsulated the lifestyle of the celebrity. Remembered for her glamour, her charity work for unfashionable causes and her controversial relationship with the Royal Family, she is still mourned across the county and the world. Princess Diana became Patron of the College in 1983 after accepting the invitation of President Dr Thomas Thomson for a period of 5 years. She visited the College for the award of the Honorary Fellowship in 1984. After this visit the Princess agreed to sit for a portrait commissioned by the College, choosing London artist Richard Foster to depict her.

Foster was born in 1945 and brought up in Norfolk. He studied painting in Florence and in London at the City and Guilds Art School. Foster has received commissions from Europe and America as well as Great Britain and won the Lord Mayor’s Award for London Landscapes. He has held three individual exhibitions in London, regularly exhibits at the Royal Academy and is a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. Princess Diana’s portrait was delivered to the College in 1986 and spent three weeks being exhibited in the Portrait Painters’ Annual Exhibition in the Mall Galleries in London in 1987. It is a greatly admired portrait and thought to be an excellent likeness, although the Princess herself apparently said she is depicted carrying a few extra pounds!

In 1988 the Princess happily agreed to remain Patron for another 5 years. In 1996 she resigned from her role as Patron; her tragic death occurring just over a year later. The College’s association with Princess Diana was a happy one lasting 13 years.