In 1985, King Charles—then the Prince of Wales—invited the artist John Ward, who had once been his art teacher, to accompany him on an official tour of Italy as the tour’s official artist. Ward was instructed to draw whatever inspired him and he gladly obliged, depicting cafes, the deck of the S.S. Britannia, and landscapes. Over the past four decades, 43 artists have been invited on 70 official tours across 95 countries. “The idea is the artists can capture something of the place the king is visiting,” says Kate Heard, a curator at the Buckingham Palace museum. “Artists are given a lot of freedom which has resulted in this incredible variety of work.” The fruits of their labor are now on view for the first time. Many of the artworks have never been seen before and were selected by the King himself. —Elena Clavarino