Pietro Annigoni Pietro Annigoni, OMRI (7 June 1910 – 28 October 1988) was an Italian artist, portrait painter, fresco painter and medallist, best known for his painted portraits of Queen Elizabeth II. His work was in the Renaissance tradition, contrasting ...

completed a number of portraits of

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

between 1954 and 1972. In 1955, he painted her for the

Worshipful Company of Fishmongers The Worshipful Company of Fishmongers (or Fishmongers' Company) is one of the 110 Livery Companies of the City of London, being an incorporated guild of sellers of fish and seafood in the City. The Company ranks fourth in the order of precede ...

and in 1969 for the National Portrait Gallery. The two portraits were united for the National Portrait Gallery's exhibition; ''The Queen: Art and Image'', held to mark the

Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II The year 2012 marked the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II being the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. The only diamond jubilee celebration for any of Elizabeth's predecessors was in 1897, for the 60th an ...

in 2012. In 1972, Annigoni completed a circular drawing of the Queen and

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from El ...

to mark their silver wedding anniversary. The 1955 portrait was popular with the public and liked by the Queen but criticised for its romantic treatment and for prioritising Elizabeth's role as the monarch over insights into her inner life. The 1969 portrait continued the theme of emphasising the Royal role by placing Elizabeth against a featureless background that symbolised her sole responsibility as monarch. It was unpopular with the public.

1955 portrait

The 1955 painting was commissioned by the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

livery company, the

. It was first displayed in 1955 and later loaned by the Fishmonger's Company in 1958 and 1986 before the National Portrait Gallery's 2012 exhibition. It is displayed at their livery hall,

Fishmongers' Hall Fishmongers' Hall (sometimes shortened in common parlance to Fish Hall) is a listed building, Grade II* listed building adjacent to London Bridge. It is the headquarters of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers, one of the 110 livery companies of ...

, adjacent to

London Bridge Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...

. It is a full-length portrait in

tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done ...

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

and ink on paper on canvas. Wearing the robes of the

Order of the Garter The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. It is the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the George C ...

, Elizabeth stands in a

pastoral A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...

landscape, inspired by a comment that she made to Annigoni of how much she liked to watch people and traffic from a window as a child. The National Portrait Gallery described the painting as showing Elizabeth "in a sylvan idyll yet outward looking and connected to her surroundings" and wrote that when first shown "it drew crowds said to be ten-deep with viewers fascinated by the portrait's idealised yet penetrating character". It was first displayed at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

's Summer Exhibition and was shown alongside a recent portrait of Elizabeth by

Simon Elwes Lt. Col. Simon Edmund Vincent Paul Elwes, (29 June 1902 – 6 August 1975) was a British war artist and society portrait painter whose patrons included presidents, kings, queens, statesmen, sportsmen, prominent social figures and many members ...

. ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' placed the portrait in the tradition of works that sacrificed "the reality of the monarch to the idea of the monarchy", saying that Annigoni had "managed to capture some of her Majesty's dignity and beauty. All he has failed to capture is her vitality". The paper compared the work unfavourably to

Hans Holbein the Younger Hans Holbein the Younger ( , ; german: Hans Holbein der Jüngere; – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a Germans, German-Swiss people, Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered o ...

's portrait of

Jane Seymour Jane Seymour (c. 150824 October 1537) was List of English consorts, Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII of England from their Wives of Henry VIII, marriage on 30 May 1536 until her death the next year. She became queen followi ...

, in which they felt "the complexity of the detail creates a coherent and deliberate abstract pattern, which has a life and meaning of its own", transforming the sitter into a "more than human symbol", whereas with Annigoni "...there is no such purpose and eloquence in the actual marks on the canvas; something has been subtracted from reality, but nothing has been added". In 1972, ''The Times'' reported that the 1955 portrait was "dismissed by some critics as romanticized and ' chocolate boxy', but the public liked it. The Queen, too, is known to have done so". In a 2013 article for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' on the difficulties of painting Elizabeth, Harry Wallop wrote that the 1955 portrait has subsequently been "deemed to be the most successful of all" as it "...makes no attempt to unearth the inner life of the young woman. She stands aloof, regal but none the less a beautiful 28-year-old. It is undoubtedly a portrait of a queen."

1969 portrait: ''Her Majesty in Robes of the British Empire''

The painting is a portrait in tempera grassa on paper on panel. Elizabeth is depicted wearing the red robes of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

. 18 sittings were held over eight months between the Queen and Annigoni; the first eight sittings resulted in a large oil and pastel study that was later bought from Annigoni's family by Elizabeth in 2006. A photograph by

Cecil Beaton Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as an Oscar–winning stage and costume designer for films and the theat ...

in which Elizabeth wears the red Order of the British Empire robes has been considered as a source for the portrait. The 1969 portrait was commissioned by the trustees of the National Portrait Gallery and funded by art dealer Hugh Leggatt. The style of the second painting stood in contrast to the first. It has been described as "stark and monumental" with Elizabeth "standing against an ambiguous, spare and gloomy, plain background", as opposed to the earlier "glamorous and romantic" portrait. Annigoni said of the second portrait of the Queen that he "did not want to paint her as a film star; I saw her as a monarch, alone in the problems of her responsibility". Writing in the '' Oxford Dictionary of Art'', Ian Chilvers felt that the 1969 portrait's "rather severe, school marmish image had a mixed reception" and was "much less popular" than the earlier portrait. ''The Times'' later described it as having "encountered more widespread hostility from public and critics" than the earlier painting, including a woman who threw a Bible at it when it was on display at the National Portrait Gallery where it was seen by 250,000 people.

1972 drawing of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh

In 1972, Annigoni completed a circular drawing of the Queen and the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produc ...

facing each other against a background of

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original cast ...

to mark their silver wedding anniversary. The drawing was commissioned by the Library of Imperial History to be etched on commemorative silver and gold plates. Annigoni based the drawing on earlier sketches he had completed and the most recent official portraits which were sent to him.

References

{{Authority control 1955 paintings 1969 paintings 20th-century portraits Paintings in the National Portrait Gallery, London Italian paintings Portraits of the British Royal Family Portraits of women Cultural depictions of Elizabeth II