Andrew Thomas Festing MBE PPRP (born 30 November 1941) is a British portrait painter, and fellow and former president of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.
Life
Andrew Festing was born on 30 November 1941, the third son of four boys of Field Marshal Sir Francis Festing and Mary Cecilia Riddell. He was brought up in Northumberland, and educated at Ampleforth College and Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He was commissioned into The Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own), part of The Royal Green Jackets from 1966, in 1961 where he served until 1969. In 1968 he married Virginia Fyffe, and has one daughter – Charlotte – and two grandchildren.
Festing worked at Sotheby's in 1969 and was head of the British Pictures Department from 1977–1981, where he became Sotheby’s chief expert for British Pictures, with specialist knowledge of portrait painting over the last 400 years. He painted many portraits whilst in the army and at Sotheby's, and took up full-time portrait painting in 1981.
Festing became a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (RP) in 1989, and was President (PRP) from 2002–2008. In 2008, he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to the arts. In 2010 he was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Northumbria University.
