Art photographer who worked on the Royal collections
RODNEY WRIGHTWATSON, who has died aged 95, was an art photographer who catalogued the great collections in museums, galleries and large private houses; his name featured in the credits and footnotes of numerous exhibition catalogues.
One of his most important commissions was to record the Royal Collection of the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace as well as the Queen’s Leonardo da Vinci Cartoons, held in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, for insurance purposes. He was awarded a Royal Warrant for Photography.
While working in a Buckingham Palace passageway late one night, trying to arrange lighting for a long painting that had to be photographed at an angle due to the restricted space, he was surprised by an equally surprised monarch. “You know who I am,” she said, “but who are you?” When he explained, she said: “I’ll call you Mr Rodney!”
They got on well and he photographed her in full regalia for her portrait on bank notes, though when a flash bulb exploded on the first take, the Queen could not help smiling – so the photograph, in which she was supposed to look regal, had to be scrapped.
Wright-watson worked with many 20th-century artists, including shooting Barbara Hepworth’s sculptures in Cornwall, and was in demand to photograph works at leading commercial galleries.
There were more challenging assignments. Once, he was commissioned to photograph the gold bullion held in the Bank of England in Threadneedle Street, where a special door had to be opened so that he could drive in with his equipment.
When he photographed the shields around the dial of Big Ben he had to be cantilevered up, watched by gaping crowds, at some distance from the tower, while, to protect his ears, the bells had to be muted.
On another occasion he had to scale a 200ft radio tower to take photographs of the English countryside. Confident of his head for heights, he cheerily turned down the offer of special boots and began to climb.
But there was a near gale-force wind coming in from the North Sea and the tower turned out to be extremely wobbly. The arches of his feet had to bear the burden of both him and the equipment as he negotiated the swaying structure – to the point when the strain almost became unbearable. He carried on and finished the job, but learned a hard lesson – by the skin of his feet, he said later.
Rodney Wright-watson was born on June 29 1926 in Valleta, Malta, where his father was serving in the Royal Navy, and brought up in North London, where he attended Enfield High School.
It was his National Service working as a reconnaissance photographer in the Army that inspired him to become a professional photographer, and he went on to set up the first colour film laboratory in Britain at his studio in Dover Street, Mayfair.
A keen tennis player into old age, Wright-watson also enjoyed skiing (his motto was “Learn when you fall down – get up, and do it better straight away”) and messing about in boats, sailing in the Mediterranean and cruising the Thames with his wife Mikki in their vessel Memory. Most of all he loved entertaining and swapping stories with friends, whom he would invite to barbecues on board Memory on summer days.
Wright-watson lived in a flat high above the Thames with splendid views of Bishops Palace, Fulham and the colourful quilt of the “dig for victory” allotments, formed out of gardens during the Second World War. He enjoyed sunsets and skyscapes and watching birds; ornithology was another interest, as were cats.
In retirement he became a skilled glass engraver and even wrote two seafaring novels.
Mikki died in 2002. There were no children of the marriage.