In 1972, Jeannette Charles was in her mid-40s and settling down to life in an Essex village, having returned, with her husband, Ken, from Libya. They had been living there for some years, but left following the army coup led by Muammar Gaddafi.
On reading about the artist Jane Thornhill in a local newspaper, Charles decided to commission a painting of herself for her husband’s birthday. Thornhill asked whether she could submit it for the Royal Academy’s summer exhibition in London, but when she did, the venerable institution returned the picture, believing it to be a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and having been told by Buckingham Palace that the monarch had not sat for it.
