Portrait of Mary Archer by Bryan Organ, acrylic on canvas, 1991

Portrait of Mary Archer by Bryan Organ, acrylic on canvas, 1991

This portrait of Dame Mary Archer, Chair of the Science Museum Group’s Board of Trustees from 2015 to 2023, was commissioned by her husband Jeffrey to mark their Silver Wedding Anniversary in July 1991. The acrylic on canvas work was painted by Bryan Organ, an eminent portraitist best known for his groundbreakingly relaxed depictions of the British royal family, including King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales.

Dame Mary sat for the portrait in the conservatory of their main residence, the Old Vicarage, in Grantchester near Cambridge. It depicts her seated in a garden, wearing a navy knitted jersey and wide collared shirt and holding her then favourite cat, Oscar, in her lap.

A chemist by training, Dame Mary went on to specialise in solar energy conversion, writing and contributing to several volumes on the topic. Following a ten-year period of teaching chemistry at the University of Cambridge, she built a distinguished portfolio career. She was the founding chair of the National Energy Foundation from 1988 to 2000, co-founded the UK Section of the International Solar Energy Society and sat on the Council of Lloyds Insurance Company and the board of Anglia Television.

She has also had a long association with the NHS, serving as chair of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust between 2002 and 2012. This work led her to being appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2012 birthday honours.