B.

No thank you, Your Majesty

Behind the scenes

A list of those Britons who declined honours between 1951 and 1999 has just been published by the Cabinet Office and widely reported in the British press. You can see the full list here.

It seems this really is the list to be on: famous enough to be offered an honour, but too cool to accept it. Among the 277 who decided they did not need the Queen's patronage are many artists, such as L S Lowry, Henry Moore, Lucien Freud, Francis Bacon, Prunella Clough, Ben Nicolson and John Piper. The famously tricky Lowry declined an OBE, a CBE, a Companion of Honour (twice) and finally a knighthood.

Here's a work from our collection by another artist who said no, Buenos Aires born surrealist Eileen Agar (1904–1991)

Eileen Agar Shrimps at Sea c.1948. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, presented by Mr Rex Nan Kivell 1953. Reproduced courtesy of the estate of Eileen Agar

Eileen Agar Shrimps at Sea c.1948. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, presented by Mr Rex Nan Kivell 1953. Reproduced courtesy of the estate of Eileen Agar