Charles Spencer, the younger brother of the late Princess Diana, recently left his Instagram followers stunned after he shared a drawing of his and Diana’s late grandmother.
Not only was it a beautiful tribute to his grandmother, Cynthia Spencer, but Charles’ followers were also pretty quick to point out that she shared an uncanny resemblance to Princess Diana.
Charles has a history of sharing with his followers various artifacts and memories that are a part of his family heritage. Despite her having passed away in 1997, many people all over the world are still obsessed with Princess Diana’s memory, which didn’t just stop after she had passed away. Charles’ Instagram account is a way for him to share these memories and also allows his followers to share their memories of Princess Diana, or to just comment on how much they love the photos that he shares.
Alongside the photo of the drawing of his grandmother, Charles had captioned the Instagram post with some of the fond memories that he has of his grandmother.
He said that he “adored” her and that when he started boarding school in September 1972, his father had told him that his grandmother would be “popping across from Althorpe House to Maidwell to take me out to tea.”
However, unfortunately for Charles, this wasn’t to be, as soon after he began boarding school, his grandmother was diagnosed with a brain tumor and he was unable to see her. She sadly died just a few weeks later at the age of 75.
Many royal fans commented on the photo, saying that at first glance, they had thought it was a drawing of Princess Diana and that Diana looked a lot like her grandmother.
In Cynthia’s memory, there is a hospice in Northampton that has been named Cynthia Spencer Hospice. According to Cynthia Spencer Hospice’s website, they provide palliative care to people with life-limiting illnesses and provide support to both their patients and their families. It is a place people will go to when they are receiving end-of-life care, and it gives them the dignity and comfort they deserve that they might not always get if they were to spend the end of their lives in a hospital.
Diana is believed to have been inspired by her kindness, with Cynthia likely being the reason behind Diana’s kindhearted personality and why she was loved by so many, even though Cynthia wasn’t as well known outside of royal circles as Diana.
The drawing was created by artist John Singer Sargent, an American expatriate artist, and, according to The Daily Mail, he was one of the leading portrait painters of his generation, as he was able to showcase Edwardian-era luxury that is forever encapsulated in his drawings. This particular drawing of Cynthia was made in 1919, which was the same year she married Charles’ grandfather, Viscount Althorp, and was made right at the end of the Edwardian era.
