Artwork on QE2

[Rob Lightbody]

Is this picture (attached) from stateroom 3093 original do you think?  I couldn't decide - I loved its craziness.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lightbody/3788346099/

[Twynkle]

Picasso 1924!

So...then wondering about it's originality....
https://www.flickr.com/photos/artimageslibrary/3761188799/

[Rob Lightbody]

Ha!  Thank you!

I'm SURE it was the original in cabin 3093 - it must be!!   

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

I'm SURE it was the original in cabin 3093 - it must be!!   

It quite possibly is. If it's an etching, he might well have made a fair number of prints, which would be individually numbered, probably at the bottom of the picture. All of them would be originals, but quite possibly the lower numbers would fetch a higher price.

This is just what I remember (maybe rightly, maybe wrongly) from my History of Art classes, long time ago...

[Rob Lightbody]

I was only kidding!!  With thousands of staterooms to put pictures in, I'd imagine they weren't very expensive pieces...  still, I appreciated the thought that went into this one, it made the room more interesting, compared to the dreary non-descript pieces in most hotel rooms etc!

[Malcolm]

Is this picture (attached) from stateroom 3093 original do you think?

Interesting. I read your question as being was the picture original to the ship rather than was it an original work by Picasso. I would doubt that the picture was one originally included on the ship. Not because that picture would be either the wrong period or the wrong style but because so many other pictures in cabins were obviously from a different era that I don't see why the odd one should have survived.

[Michael Gallagher]

Rob - it was an original. The original first class cabin artwork budget for QE2 when planning the ship was £10 for each picture (allowing for two pictures per cabin: £20) but this was reduced in 1967 to just £6 per picture (total £12 for a first calss cabin). Amazingly the suiterooms had a budget for £150 per room. So the total budget for suites and first class cabins was £10,796.

Originally it was agreed that only 150 Tourist Rooms would have artwork and the remaining would go without! But late in 1968 it was agreed that every cabin would have a picture.

The December 1964 tender document for the ship allowed £50,000 for the entire artwork budget (public rooms and cabins). I know times have changed but when you think £3.5 million was spent on QM2's artwork....

[Malcolm]

it was an original.

I was wrong in my assumptions again In that case why were so many of the original pictures removed and replaced with things that looked so 80s?

[Michael Gallagher]

I think things were changed over time. I know that the former suites on Two Deck were all given prints of past Cunarders by an artist called Wigston. I know the cabin artworkn always looked very peculiar. As we can see no expense spent in the 1960s!

[Twynkle]

John Wigston was artist in residence on QE2
Wondering whether there were others too?

https://www.buckinghamcovers.com/shop/signer.php?signer_id=470

And btw, the first day covers - has anyone collected any of these?

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

I have now uploaded all my photos of the Chart Room calligraphy, with its many layers of writing in many different styles.
Lovely artwork, and lovely poetry as well.
I wonder what is known about the artwork and the history of these panels?

Here are the broader views :

https://www.flickr.com/photos/prondis_in_kenya/3800972983/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/prondis_in_kenya/3800976139/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/prondis_in_kenya/3801800046/

and here some details :

https://www.flickr.com/photos/prondis_in_kenya/2970642703/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/prondis_in_kenya/2971487004/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/prondis_in_kenya/2971488958/

[Twynkle]

Isabelle

Thank you for both the pictures and the texts on your photos!
It's lovely to be able to read them again.

Rosie

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Our member Marthie wrote this to Liners' List and has allowed me to forward it here :

With the recent discussions of whether or not QE2 might be scrapped, I am more interested in what will ever happen to those historical exhibits and articles which went with the ship. Didn't I hear that when she is ready for scrapping, that Cunard would get that collection back?

There is one special oil painting I am thinking of, which I have dubbed "The Lee Shore" located at the top of Stairway B on Two Deck. I used to plan my route up from Four or Five Deck to reach Two Deck at B so I could simply contemplate and scrutinize the details. Are the schooners burning? Are those people on the beach smugglers or are they going to help save lives? So many people I would tell about this painting had never seen this painting and had never used B stairway, so we would make a special trip to see it.  Does anyone on the list remember seeing this?  I wouldn't mind owning it.

Martha on Cape Cod

Any comments for Marthie?

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

As regards Marthie's first question, the answers can be found here, within Malcolm's Diary of the last World Cruise :

https://www.theqe2story.com/forum/index.php/topic,543.msg10305.html#msg10305

.. and continuing two posts below, with Malcolm's response.

I wonder whether anyone else noticed this picture? Pia tells me that she looked at it regularly, as she used this stairway quite often, starting from the Two Deck landing, where it was placed.

[Twynkle]

In trying to find something to do with QE2 that would fulfill my onboard Queen Victoria spending fortune (it was to me!),
I came across a single copy of a superb book in Queen Victoria's book shop.
'Cunarder' contains ten reproductions of Stephen Card's oil paintings that became part of the permanent art collection on board QE2.

Please - does anyone know whether the Stephen Card collection is still there, and in tact?
These paintings will be extremely valuable - hope they are insured!