Pietro Annigoni: 1969 Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, Pt. 2

"Queen Elizabeth II" by Pietro Annigoni

"So far I had done little more than prepare the large wooden panel on which I had decided to paint it. Now I drew with a brush the outlines of the composition and painted in the principal masses. Then, using the finished study I had made at Buckingham Palace, I began to work on the head of the Queen and continued until I could take it no further without more sittings. At the beginning of October, I had the panel crated and sent to Buckingham Palace to await my arrival there.

On 19th October I left Florence by train and arrived in London the next day, and the following morning I was at the Palace with Tim Whidborne to help me to unpack the portrait, when Sir Martin Charteris sent for me. Naturally, I assumed he wanted to discuss the schedule for the Queen's sittings but instead he upbraided me about an article in a woman's magazine which reported passages of the Queen's conversations with me. The Queen, said Sir Martin, was annoyed about it. I had to admit to myself that I had succumbed to the temptation of the publicity and the fee that the magazine had offered me, and in my heart I reproached myself for having done it. But I forgave myself, too.

A sitting had been arranged for that afternoon and I prepared to offer my apologies, but the opportunity to do so never arose. From the moment of her arrival her amiability was so evident that it would have been churlish to mar it with an obviously unwanted apology. She greeted me with a friendly handshake and showed much more than polite interest in the large picture that she was seeing for the first time. From then on we talked almost continuously, covering a great variety of subjects, [which was the pattern for the following sittings].

To facilitate my work when the Queen was not with me, I had the British Empire robe draped on a dummy figure that was crowned with a wig belonging to her. Now that I was painting her hair from life, I noticed how closely the wig resembled her own hair in colour and style, and commented upon it. 'Yes,' she said, 'it's an excellent imitation and it also cost a great deal!' According to my schedule the next sitting, the sixteenth, should have been the last and the Queen remembered, but with her usual thoughtfulness she asked if I needed more and acceded to my request for two. 

During the last stages of the painting I worked for at least six hours every day at the Palace. The two extra sittings proved of little value. The portrait was already defined in a way quite different from that I had envisaged. The Queen was restless and nervous and I became exasperated as the truly Royal image that I aimed for eluded me. But before she left for the last time I thanked her for the many sittings and she replied, almost shyly, hoping that they had been enough. Then she left the room to the music of the slow march from the band in the courtyard below. I did not think she was entirely satisfied with the portrait, and I myself felt that yet again I had created a Royal portrait that was going to be liked by some and hated by others - and so it proved."

To be continued 

(Excerpted from "Pietro Annigoni: An Artist's Life" by Pietro Annigoni, 1977.)