He was the artist who portrayed three queens, yet Howard Morgan (1949–2020) was an art dealer’s nightmare. The very genius that led him to paint Elizabeth II, the Queen Mother and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands — as well as assorted real and theatre royalty — also made him unpredictable: ‘My clients always took a slight risk when they commissioned him, because he either pulled it off in a spectacular fashion or his likenesses fell short of expectations,’ recalls Sara Stewart, founder and managing director of Fine Art Commissions , an agency that matches prospective sitters with suitable portraitists. ‘Latterly, he was a tricky old rogue, who could drive dealers mad.’

Yet, she admits, ‘all of us would agree he was a one off and made the art world a richer place’. That is why, of all th

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