Thread: Memory Lane (In my own language)

The portrait of King Rama V with Supreme Queen Consort Sripacharintra and their sons.




This portrait was drawn using the prototype photo shown below (computer colored version). If you notice, you will see some differences between those two pictures.




Two grown sons shown in the prototype photo were different people from those shown in the portrait.

Two grown sons shown in the prototype photo were the King’s sons all right but they were not born from the Supreme Queen Consort while two grown sons shown in the portrait were those born from her (i.e. the future King Rama VI and Prince Chakrapong Phuwanat).

The reason; when King Rama V had an idea of his family with his Supreme Queen Consort captured in a portrait. Those two young Princes were absent from Siam. They were studying abroad. So, he ordered other of his sons to temporarily take their places in the prototype photo and the amendment would be fixed later.

More trivia about this portrait; originally the rest three boys who were still very young were wearing top-knotted hairdo (traditional hair style for boys in the old period). After the prototype photo was sent to Florence, Italy, the painter, Edouard Gelli, saw it and refused to make a portrait of it claiming that those three boys had weird hairdo which he had never seen before in his life.

So, the King had to arrange a new prototype photo by having those three boys change into a new look, with sailor outfits. Those sailor hats were covering their top-knots.

The portrait was done and delivered back to Bangkok 2 years later.

It is now hanging at Chakri Maha Prasat Throne Hall inside the Grand Palace.