[[image]]

King George V, 1910-1936

The royal portraits in the Senate’s collection honour the Upper Chamber’s ties to the Crown and Canada’s heritage as a constitutional monarchy.

George V was king of the United Kingdom and Canada from 1910, through the First World War and the Great Depression, until his death in 1936. He granted Canada its Coat of Arms and official colours of red and white in 1921. He was a grandson of Queen Victoria and became grandfather to Queen Elizabeth II, the U.K. and Canada’s longest reigning monarch.

The Senate’s portrait of George V is the work of Sir Luke Fildes, a popular and successful newspaper and magazine illustrator who pivoted to portraiture.

In 1928, George V gifted reproductions of his portrait and three others — his consort Queen Mary, father King Edward VII and mother Queen Alexandra — to the Government of Canada to celebrate the country’s Diamond Jubilee. The paintings replaced portraits of the royals lost in the 1916 fire that destroyed the original Centre Block.

[[artitemobjectdetails]]