's study, 2023 The portrait was
commissioned by Prime Minister
Gordon Brown in 2007. Brown had offered Thatcher the honour of a painted portrait after meeting her for tea at
10 Downing Street in September 2007. It was unveiled at a private reception that day and was put on permanent display in the vestibule on the first floor lobby of Number 10. The portrait then hung in the study of Number 10 which became unofficially known as the Thatcher Room. In October 2022 an earlier version of the portrait dating from 2004 was sold from the collection of businessman and
Conservative Party donor
Stuart Wheeler at auction for £35,000. It had hung at
Chilham Castle, Wheeler's residence in Kent. In August 2024 the biographer of Prime Minister
Keir Starmer,
Tom Baldwin, said that in a conversation with Starmer, he had said that the portrait was " ... a bit unsettling with her staring down at you like that, isn't it?" with which Starmer had agreed. Baldwin asked Starmer if he would "get rid of it" and Starmer reportedly nodded in the affirmative. Speaking to
Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg in September 2024, Starmer explained that the portrait was not moved out of dislike for Thatcher "at all" but because he "didn't want a picture of anyone" in the study, preferring landscapes. == References ==