Queen's paintings stuns

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Enough to make Her Majesty blush! Restorers cleaning Queen's paintings stunned to find a man answering a call of nature - but can you spot him?

A squatting figure relieving himself in the foreground of a rustic village scene has been exposed by conservators in a 17th-century Dutch painting in the Queen's own Royal Collection. He had been hidden until now beneath shrubbery painted across him by an art restorer more than 100 years ago, apparently to spare royal blushes. Royal Collection Trust conservators made the discovery while cleaning a picture, titled A Village Fair with a Church Behind, painted by Isack van Ostade in 1643, six years before his death at the tender age of 28.