From a lovely ing��nue with the weight of the world on her
shoulders to, arguably, the most successful constitutional
monarch in history, Queen Elizabeth has remained the
single, consistent, omnipresent figure, for six decades,
on the world stage. Although at the end of World War
II only nineteen years
old, but heir to the British
throne and Empire, she
is today the last living
authority still in power
directly connected to the
political leadership of that
era.
At all ages, the Queen���s
image is an icon to be
reckoned with, one that
has been the subject
of traditional and nontraditional contemporary
portraiture: in oil, ten
portraits
before
her
reign and 129 during it.
Over the years I have seen remarkable portraits of the
Queen. Pietro Annigoni���s 1956 striking representation
of the Queen in her early maturity is among the most
compelling. Lucien Freud���s image of the Queen in maturity
is considered by some rather overripe, but importantly
HYLAND
