Thursday, July 14, 2011

The Queen - Art & Image


Throughout her reign Queen Elizabeth II has inspired artists not only to embrace tradition, but also to extend the genre of royal portraiture. This book celebrates the complex evolution of representations of the Queen and provides a fascinating vision of a changing nation alongside a changing monarchy.

Author Paul Moorhouse probes the dialogue between traditional depictions and the progressive informality of the mass-media. He shows how this interchange has produced a new iconography that has profoundly influenced modern perceptions of monarchy. Setting these developments within a wider social context, Moorhouse demonstrates that the diverse and multi-faceted artworks illustrated in the book, including portraits by Cecil Beaton, Lucian Freud, Gilbert and George, Yousuf Karsh, Annie Leibovitz, Snowdon, Gerhard Richter and Andy Warhol, provide not
only a lens through which the Queen’s reign may be viewed, but also evoke a wider artistic, social and historical context.

With sections relating to each decade from the 1950s onwards, and an illuminating essay exploring the reign and jubilees of Queen Elizabeth II by historian David Cannadine, this inspirational book charts a transformation in the representation of royalty.
Here are three illustrations from the book reproduced with permission of the publishers with credits below.





Photo Credits - 
Queen Elizabeth II
Dorothy Wilding, 1952
Chlorobromide print, 290 x 215 mm
National Portrait Gallery, London (P870(5))
© William Hustler and Georgina Hustler/ National Portrait Gallery, London

Queen Elizabeth II
Dorothy Wilding (Hand-coloured by Beatrice Johnson), 1952
Hand-coloured bromide print, 316 x 248 mm
National Portrait Gallery, London (x125105)
© William Hustler and Georgina Hustler/ National Portrait Gallery, London

Lightness of Being, 2007
By Chris Levine
Print on lightbox
© Chris Levine
Courtesy of Mr Kevin P.Burke and the Burke Children. Private Collection.

The Queen: Art and Image
National Gallery Complex, Edinburgh 25 June–18 Sept 2011
National Museums Northern Ireland 14 October 2011–15 Jan 2012
National Museum Cardiff 4 February – 29 April 2012
National Portrait Gallery, London 17 May – 21 Oct 2012

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