Stunning Household Cavalry portraits gifted to King Charles III on display at Floors Castle

Incredible Household Cavalry portraits gifted to King Charles III during his coronation will go on display at Borders’ stately home Floors Castle this summer.

The display includes twelve large-scale portraits by British photographic artist Ripley, who had the idea for the project in 2012.

Each one of the pieces took between 200 and 300 hours to perfect and, four years later, the project was finally complete and ready to be shared.

A boxed set of these very same portraits was the official Coronation Present to His Majesty King Charles III from his Household Cavalry, presented by Ripley himself and senior officers to King Charles III at Buckingham Palace last year.

The recently opened exhibition, which will be available to visit until June 26, features stunning portraits of soldiers from The Life Guards and The Blues and Royals mounted on their horses and posed on buildings throughout London, overlooking the capital from Trafalgar Square to Canary Wharf.

‘I had an idea back in 2012 when photographing from rooftops in New York to do an art piece with horses placed on rooftops overlooking an urban landscape,’ said Ripley.

‘I started formulating ideas involving The Household Cavalry, portraying them as “protectors”, “The Trusted Guardians” – overlooking London.

‘My photography is more involved than placing one picture on top of another and involves shifts of focus throughout the image and other technical processes, just the background plate alone can be constructed from over twenty separate pictures.’

A chance meeting with the then Commanding Officer Col James Gaselee helped with turning the idea into reality, and, a year later, production on a large scale began, involving many soldiers with their horses in full ceremonial dress, a huge amount of behind-the-scenes work and two more years to complete photography in London.

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