An informal side to the Queen
Surely one of the perks of being Queen must be getting two birthdays?
Whilst we tend to celebrate the Queen's official birthday in June, let us not forget that Elizabeth II was actually born on April 21, meaning she turned 86 years old this month, officially.
For this week's Artwork of the Week we've chosen Cecil Beaton's portrait of Elizabeth from 1968 when she was 42 years old, a photograph that not only contrasts with traditional depictions of the royals but signals a shift in the public relationship with the royal family, a very conscious effort to make the Queen and her family more 'real'.
Traditionally, representations of the Royal Family were formal, aloof and impersonal, often taking inspiration from painted portraiture. But as the 1960s unfolded there were profound social changes in Britain. Old hierarchies were dismantled, and as a result representations of the Queen began to transform, depicting her in a more egalitarian, less informal and less rigid way.
Photographer to high society and the British Royal Family, Cecil Beaton is most widely recognised for his portraits of Queen Elizabeth II. Having developed a professional relationship with the Queen over thirty years, Cecil's portraits of her are extremely intimate. They were never intended as private family portraits, but always had the explicit purpose of promoting the British Royal Family to the public in a more personal way. During the 1960s Beaton started to capture her in more simple and off-duty roles, such as in a series of domestic photographs with her children.
This particular photograph was Beaton's last sitting with the Queen and, with its kind of Wuthering Heights, wild and windy vibe, very much presents the Queen as a lone individual, deep in contemplation. There is no suggestion of status; the Queen does not look into the camera with confidence but seems lost in thought elsewhere. There is a softness to this photograph that conveys a very human presence.
The National Portrait Gallery will exhibit paintings and representations of the Queen in the forthcoming exhibition The Queen: Art and Image(17 May - 21 October 2012).
You can also explore depictions of the Queen in this collection of artworks put together by Artfinder: