Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II
| HM Queen Elizabeth II |
|---|
| Lucian Freud , 2000/2001 |
| Oil on Ln |
| 23.5 x 15.2 cm |
| Royal Collection Trust, Windsor Castle
Link to the picture |
Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II , also HM Queen Elizabeth II , is a picture by the British painter Lucian Freud , which he painted in 2001. The picture shows Queen Elizabeth II of England at the age of 75.
history
The portrait of Elizabeth II is not a commissioned work. In a question to the Queen, Freud asked if she could paint her and received a positive answer. According to Paul Moorhouse, who curated the anniversary exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery on the occasion of her accession to the throne , the Queen seldom turned down such a request: “She didn't just see it as her job to sit as a model - she also accepts any finished picture, do not judge and do not comment on it. "
The meetings took place between May 2000 and December 2001. Freud initially planned an image format of 20 cm high, but then decided to add the diamond diadem (George IV State Diadem) to the portrait "to make the figure more directly recognizable" - the Queen is with the diadem on the British banknotes and depicted on many Commonwealth postage stamps - and lengthened the image above by 3.5 cm. Freud received no fee for his picture. The creation process of the picture was recorded in a photo series by Freud's assistant David Dawson .
Freud's picture and one of Dawson's photographs were given to the Queen as gifts and are now part of the Royal Collection . The picture was shown publicly in the exhibition The Queen: Art and Image in the National Portrait Gallery in 2002 as one of 60 pictures - one for each year of her reign - and subsequently in the National Museum in Cardiff .
description
Freud depicts the queen as a head portrait in the manner of a closeup : the shoulders and neck are trimmed at the lower edge, as well as the gray curly hairstyle and the crown on the head on both sides. She wears a blue jacket, a pearl necklace and pearl earrings. It is crowned with a diadem, which is also cut. Elisabeth wore this crown on her solemn coronation procession in 1953 and wears it every year at the opening of the parliamentary session . The diamonds in the diadem weigh a total of 320 carats . The crown is decorated with the George Cross and the symbols for Wales , Scotland and England ( clover leaf , thistle and rose ).
Comments in the press
The portrait caused outraged reviews in the British tabloid press. The Sun called it "a travesty" (a travesty ). The editor of the Daily Mirror found that they should have saved the picture and instead used one of the puppets from the satirical show Spitting Image . The Sun photographer , Arthur Edwards, who specializes in royals , was of the opinion that the picture belonged in the toilet ( kharzi ) and that Freud should be locked in the tower .
Robert Simon, the editor of the British Art Journal, said she looked like one of the royal corgis who had received a blow. The comments in the specialist press and in the feature sections of the national press were more differentiated.
literature
- Paul Moorhouse, David Cannadine : The Queen: Art and Image . Hudson Hills 2011. ISBN 978-1-55595368-3
Web links
- Lucian Freud, Royal Collection Trust, Windsor Castle
- Press review
- David Dawson (b. 1960): The Queen sits for Lucian Freud 2001. C-type color print | 39.7 x 59.9 cm (image) | RCIN 2584774 Royal Collection Trust.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Louise Brown: Interview with Paul Moorhouse: Keeping Posture, Even Without a Head. TIME online. July 4, 2012, accessed January 6, 2016.
- ^ Royal Collection Trust
- ↑ Non commissioned Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by: Lucien Freud , accessed on January 10, 2016.
- ↑ The Queen: Art and Image, May 17. - October 21, 2012 , accessed January 8, 2016.
- ^ Jerrold M. Packard: The Queen & Her Court. London: Scribner 1981, p. 162.
- ^ The Telegraph .
- ^ All citations: Freud royal portrait divides critics BBC News, December 21, 2001, accessed January 10, 2016.
