Duchess of Cornwall wears a face mask for the first time in public on visit to National Gallery

Camilla wore a face mask for the first time in public today as she visited London’s National Gallery to mark it becoming the first major national art museum to open after lockdown.

As The Duchess of Cornwall was met by the gallery’s chairman, Lord Hall of Birkenhead and director Dr Gabrielle Finaldi - both in visor masks - the duchess said: “Look at those visors! I cannot speak through this. It’s quite hard having a conversation. Those visors are much easier.”

Lord Hall replied: “You get used to them!”

The duchess, who was wearing a Liberty print mask made by Fiona Clare, told Lord Hall it “must have been quite an ordeal” getting the gallery open again.

The National Gallery opened on July 8. It has been joined this week by the Tate, with the Victoria & Albert Musuem and the Science Museum to follow soon.

She told staff: “You must be glad to be back… it’s lovely to see this place open. It’s lovely to see relative normality.”

Clearly distracted by the masks and visors worn by staff, she added: “It’s a bit muffled. You have to have your ear trumpet to hear!”

She told Carole Keltie: “I wish I was in my visor!”

John Shevlin, senior content planner, told the duchess how they have continued to produce videos and other content for social media and the gallery’s website while it was closed. “You have been working in lockdown,” she said. “Still, it’s kept you active.”

Lord Hall gave a short speech congratulating staff for the reopening. “The work, the care, the ingenuity that has gone into this has been absolutely fantastic.

“The fact that the gallery was closed in one of the biggest crises any of us have ever lived through was not how we see the National Gallery. The gallery was there open during the Second World War. Many people think it should have been open during this as well, but of course it could not.”

The duchess, whose husband Prince Charles is patron of the gallery, said: “Can I congratulate you all? It’s brilliant. Hopefully it is going to inspire a lot of others to follow you.”

She added later of Charles: “He loves coming here, he absolutely loves it.”

She was shown the restored equestrian portrait of Charles I by Anthony van Dyck, which has not been on display for two years.

Larry Keith, head of conservation, told her how the discoloured varnish was removed, and the painting relined and given a new frame. “It’s incredible,” she said. “The light is so wonderful.”

In the newly restored Room 32, now the Julia and Hans Rausing Room, she was shown two new acquisitions, by father and daughter Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi. Dr Finaldi said there were very few portraits by female artists in the gallery’s collection.

The gallery has restored the decorative design of the original architect, Edward Barry, replaced the wooden floors and wall fabrics, and installed air conditioning.