The Art of Royal Travel

The Art of Royal Travel is a celebration of King Charles III's initiative to support and encourage artists by restarting the tradition of travelling with an official tour artist.

In 1985, King Charles III, then Prince of Wales, asked the painter John Ward to accompany him on an official tour to Italy to make an artistic record of the visit. In so doing, he began an inspiring tradition that celebrates its fortieth anniversary in 2025, with forty-two different artists having accompanied the King on sixty-nine official tours to ninety-five different countries worldwide.

This book relates the extraordinary stories of these visits and celebrates the work of the tour artists. Their recollections are revealed in a series of individual interviews, and their anecdotes, personal reflections and glimpses behind the scenes provide a fascinating insight into the unique essence of life on a royal tour.

The book is both a celebration of the King’s initiative to support and encourage artists and a unique and compelling account of this very special royal tradition. Sumptuously illustrated with some of the many hundreds of works produced by artists who were inspired by the King’s generosity and his unswerving commitment to the arts, the book honours the power of an artist to record what a photograph never can, in the incomparable setting of a royal tour.

Published in association with Royal Collection Trust