Henry Mee (born 1955) is a British painter. He read Fine Art at the University of Leeds awarded a place by Professor Sir Lawrence Gowing, graduating in 1979.[1]
On 23 May 1990 Arts Minister Richard Luce MP opened Mee's one man show British Eminencies: Portraits of our Age at Sotheby's London and unveiled his portrait of HM The Queen Elizabeth II.[2]
The novelist Anthony Powell CH wrote the accompanying catalogue descriptions of the thirty-one paintings.[3] [4] [5] His sitters were: The Queen; Lord Carrington KG CH; The Princess Royal; Lord Wilson of Rievaulx KG; Lord Home of the Hirsel; Lord Hailsham of Saint Marylebone CH; Lord Armstrong of Ilminster Cabinet Secretary; Baroness Park of Monmouth Principal Somerville College, Oxford; Professor Dorothy Hodgkin OM Chancellor University of Bristol; Lord Penney of East Hendred OM; Lord Zuckerman of Burnham Thorpe OM; Admiral Lord Fieldhouse of Gosport; Admiral Sir John Woodward; Sir John Harvey Jones Chairman ICI; Sir Peter Walters Chairman BP; Lord Forte of Ripley; Sir Yehudi Menuhin; Anthony Powell CH; Sir Hugh Casson CH PPRA; Sir Roger de Grey President of the Royal Academy; Sir Richard Attenborough; Sir John Mills; Sir Peter Hall Director National Theatre; Sir Robin Day; Sir Peter Imbert Commissioner Metropolitan Police; General Sir Frank Kitson; Robert Runcie MC Archbishop of Canterbury; Neil MacGregor Director National Gallery; Lord Denning of Whitchurch; and Lord King of Wartnaby.[6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
The Parliamentary Works of Art Committee commissioned Mee to paint Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Ministers Lord (Harold) Wilson, and Lord (Alec) Douglas-Home, Lord (Denis) Healey and the Queen.[11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
On 28 September 1995 The British Red Cross unveiled Henry Mee's portrait of Princess Diana at Christie's London. The Princess sat for Mee at Kensington Palace.[17] [18] [19]
September 2001 Fine Art Society London, retrospective exhibition Henry Mee Portraits of Eminent Britons.
Lord Bragg wrote the catalogue notes for New British Eminencies. His sitters were: Prime Minister Boris Johnson MP; Governor of the Bank of England Lord (Mervyn) King; Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne MP; First Secretary of State Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Lord (William) Hague of Richmond; Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Lord (Kenneth) Clarke of Nottingham CH QC PC; Lord (Alistair) Darling of Roulanish, Chancellor of the Exchequer; Alastair Campbell, Downing Street Director of Communications and Strategy; General Sir Mike Jackson GCB CBE DSO ADC DL, Chief of the General Staff; David Miliband MP, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs; Lord (Chris) Patten CH PC Governor Hong Kong 1992-7, Chancellor Oxford University, Chairman BBC Trust; Sir Vince Cable MP, Secretary of State for Business, President of the Board of Trade; The Baroness (Eliza) Manningham-Buller DCB, Director General of MI5; The Baroness (PD) James of Holland Park CBE FRSA FRSL, Author; Sir George Martin CBE, Beatles Producer, Parlophone; The Lord (Melvyn) Bragg of Wigton, Chancellor University of Leeds, Editor of the South Bank Show; Gerald Scarfe CBE RDI; and Lord in Appeal in Ordinary Lord (Leonard) Hoffmann of Chedworth PC BCL MA.[20]
Henry Mee is married with two sons and lives in Hampstead.