Queen of Hearts

#97016     40″ X 30″      ac

“I hope to be the Queen of People’s Hearts,” the Princess of Wales said before her tragic accident. Eventually this title became the very one first honored by the British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the second day after her death and accepted by the whole world henceforth. Diana, and her brief life as a fairy tale princess has transcended into an international legend, the “Queen of People’s Hearts.”

This artwork can also be thought of as “Art Collector’s Dream,” for in this painting, Dr. Chen quotes three masterpiece images from Matisse: “Pink Onion” (1906) as seen on the table, “”Goldfish” (1912) as being on Diana’s upper left hand side, and a paper cutout “Icarus” (1943) on her right hand side. Matisse’s original “Icarus” was a cutout black figure with a red heart. Chen has changed the black color into white so that the red heart, symbolizing Princess Diana’s radiant compassion for humanity and devotion to charity, would show out clearly and become the focus of the painting.

It is by the noblesse of her spirit, rather than her physical beauty that made Diana the “Queen of People’s Hearts.” The awarding of the Nobel Prize in 1998 to an institution that fought to ban landmines can be seen as a salute to the Princess, who was one of the greatest vanguards of the cause.

Since Diana was very fond of red dresses, Dr. Chen chose one of her images in red to accommodate the entire picture as a rich, harmonious, and resounding orchestration of vivid colors.

– T. F. and Julie Chen