| Her Majesty the Queen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Lucian Freud |
| Year | 2001 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
Her Majesty the Queen or Queen Elizabeth II is a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Lucian Freud. It was completed in 2001 and unveiled to a mixed reception. It is not known who owns the painting.
The painting depicts Queen Elizabeth II wearing a blue day dress with "ropes of pearl" and her Diamond Diadem. [1] [2] She wore the diadem for the portrait at Freud's request. [1] It is nine inches in height. [3]
The Queen had previously appointed Freud a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1983 and a member of the Order of Merit (OM) in 1993. [4] [5] In the mid 1990s the Queen's private secretary, Robert Fellowes, approached Freud to ask him to paint the Queen. [6] Freud finally agreed in 1999. [7] [8] Freud had painted Fellowes in 1999, with the pair having become friends through the negotiations for the Queen's portrait. [9] Freud later said that attempting to paint a face as recognisable as the Queen was as challenging as "a polar expedition". [10] He painted the portrait in the Friary Court picture conservation studio of the Royal Collection at St James's Palace. [1] The sittings took place between Freud and the Queen between May 2000 and December 2001. [1] Freud was known for requiring a large number of sittings for his subjects; the figure of 15 or 72 sittings has been quoted as being held between the pair. [6] [10] Upon the completion of the portrait the Queen told Freud that she had "very much enjoyed watching you mix your colours". [11] Freud and the Queen spent a great deal of time talking about their mutual love of horse racing. [10]
A photograph taken by Freud's assistant David Dawson of Freud at his easel painting the Queen is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London. [9] It was given to the gallery as a gift by John Morton Morris. [9]
It was reported in 2001 that the painting would be part of the Royal Collection as a gift from Freud but was subsequently revealed in 2022 to have been a gift from Freud personally to the Queen and remained her personal property. [3] It is not known if the portrait became part of the Royal Collection or was inherited by her King Charles III upon his mother's death in 2022. [3]
In the early 1990s Charles had tried to negotiate through the Duke of Beaufort, owner of Marlborough Fine Art, to swap one of his watercolours for one of Freud's paintings only to be told by Freud that he "didn't want one of your rotten paintings". [12] ArtReview wrote that the proposal was "further proof ... that the royal family are divorced from real life". [13] Charles had also "relentlessly" asked Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire for one of her paintings by Freud in her collection at Chatsworth House before she gave him a small painting of a fern. [14]
BBC News wrote that the portrait had "divided both the press and art critics" and that Freud had "depicted the Queen with his characteristic naturalism". [1] The BBC described the Queen as "[wearing] a severe expression, and her features are rendered heavily". [1] The royal photographer of The Sun , Arthur Edwards said that "They should hang it in the kharzi" and that Freud "should be locked in the Tower". [1] The director of the National Portrait Gallery, Charles Saumarez Smith described it as "thought-provoking and psychologically penetrating". [1] Critic Adrian Searle of The Guardian felt it was the finest portrait of a royal for 150 years and that "Freud has got beneath the powder, and that itself is no mean feat ... Both sitter and painter have seen too much, are easily, stoically bored. They know the shape they're in ...This is a painting of experience". [1] Critic Richard Cork of The Times felt it was "painful, brave, honest and stoical". [1]
The Daily Telegraph regarded the portrait as "thought provoking" and "every bit as good" as previous portraits of the Queen but felt it was "extremely unflattering". [1]
Richard Morrison felt that the Queen's expression was of a sovereign "who has endured not one annus horribilis but an entire reign of them. The Merry Monarch it isn't" and that her chin "has what can only be described as a six-o'clock shadow, and the neck would not disgrace a rugby prop forward". [1] Roy Strong wrote that Freud was the only painter who was able to "disregard the baggage of the past" in his portrayal of the Queen. Strong felt it was a "hypnotic aberration" as it was not painted for public consumption like Pietro Annigoni's portraits of the Queen. [1]
It was lent by King Charles III to an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 2022. [3]