Facing the Queen
Portraits of Queen Elizabeth II: The Artists’ Challenges
"Facing the Queen. Portraits of Queen Elizabeth II: The Artists’ Challenges" highlights some of the most successful portraits of the late Queen Elizabeth II, looking at the portraitists’ challenges in the 'high-wire artistic act' of expressing the concept of 'majesty'.
Philip discusses works ranging from the celluloid fantasies of Cecil Beaton to the directness of Lucian Freud; the Renaissance-inspired divinity of Pietro Annigoni to the naturalism of Annie Leibovitz.
The event was part of Gresham College's Portraiture and Power, a lecture series in which leading art historians discuss some of the world’s greatest patrons of the arts, and the challenges of depicting them.