The Queen's Head

'You're no oil painting, Ma'am,' said the Daily Mirror in their critique of Lucian Freud's recent portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. This kind of reaction to the painting - though not usually so witty - was not uncommon when the portrait was revealed to the public in December 2001.

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Q. So, who didn't like it

A. The Mirror goes on to say that Freud could have saved the Queen the trouble of sitting for him by copying her Spitting Image puppet, and the Daily Telegraph describes the portrait as 'extremely unflattering', though later conceding that the work is 'thought provoking' and 'every bit as good' as previous efforts.

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But The Times' critic was concerned that the Queen's 'chin has what can only be described as a six-o'clock shadow, and the neck would not disgrace a rugby prop forward...The expression is of a sovereign who has endured not one annus horribilis but an entire reign of them.'

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The Sun calls the portrait 'a travesty' and its royal photographer, Arthur Edwards, said in a flurry of patriotism: 'They should hang it in the kharzi. Freud should be locked in the Tower for this.'

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Q. But it must have had some supporters

A. It does. The Independent reported that it is the most honest representation of the monarch to date, and in contradiction to his colleague above, Richard Cork, chief art critic of The Times, described the image as 'painful, brave, honest, stoical and, above all, clear sighted'. Adrian Searle, the Guardian's art critic, hailed the picture as the best royal portrait for 150 years, saying that 'portraiture is meant to get beneath the skin...Freud has got beneath the powder.'

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Charles Saumarez-Smith, curator of the National Portrait Gallery, described it as 'thought-provoking and psychologically penetrating...This breaks the mould of royal portraits, which tend to be commissioned from highly traditional artists for highly conventional clients. I really think both parties should be congratulated for what is really quite a brave thing to do...We'd be delighted to hang it.' And he should know.

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Q. What's it like

A. Freud has depicted a head-and-shoulders portrait of the Queen with his characteristic naturalism - heavily rendered features, pensive, severe slightly anxious and even rather cross - wearing, at Freud's request, the tiara she wears on Royal Mail stamps. Only 23.5cm x 15.2cm, the official blurb describes it as 'a small-scale work, yet an intensely powerful image.' But then it would.

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Q. Do we know what the Queen thinks about it

A. Not in her own words, however the official press release quotes Sir Hugh Roberts, Director of the Royal Collection, as saying: 'This remarkable work by Lucian Freud is a wonderful addition to the series of royal portraits in the Royal Collection. It is extremely fitting that it will be displayed in the new Queen's Gallery as part of the celebration of Her Majesty's Golden Jubilee.' So, make of that what you will.

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Q. So it was painted for the Jubilee

A. It's the official portrait for the Queen's Golden Jubilee, which - in case it's passed you by - is this year. The suggestion that Lucian Freud might paint the Queen arose in conversations between the artist and her former Private Secretary, Sir Robert Fellowes, whose portrait had been painted by Freud.

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But choosing Freud was, from the outset, controversial not only because of his reputation for being temperamental but for the fact that his portraits - even his self-portraits - are never less than brutally frank. This was never going to be an airbrushed vision of the monarch.

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Sittings for the portrait took place between May 2000 and December 2001 at the Royal Collection's paint conservation studio at St James's Palace. The Queen apparently felt initially that a couple of sittings would be plenty while the artist thought a minimum of 10 would be required, and that they should take place in his studio. In the end sittings were fitted in whenever their schedules overlapped, and the painting was finished in December last year.

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Q. When will it be on show to the public

A. The painting is part of the Royal Collection and its public unveiling will be at the inaugural exhibition at the new Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace in the show Royal Treasures: A Golden Jubilee Celebration, which will run from 22 May 2002 until 12 January 2003.

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Q. And a little bit about Lucian Freud

A. Arguably Britain's most eminent living painter, Lucian Freud was born in Berlin in 1922. A grandson of Sigmund Freud, he came to England with his parents in 1931, and acquired British nationality in 1939. His earliest love was drawing, and he began to work full time as an artist after being invalided out of the Merchant Navy in 1942.

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In 1951 his Interior at Paddington won a prize at the Festival of Britain, and since then he has built up a formidable reputation as one of the most powerful contemporary figurative painters. Portraits and nudes are his specialities, often observed in arresting close-up.

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His early work was meticulously painted, so he has sometimes been described as Realist, but the subjectivity and intensity of his work has always set him apart from the sober tradition characteristic of most British figurative art since the Second World War.

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He was made a Companion of Honour in 1983 and awarded of the Order of Merit in 1993.

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See also the answerbank articles on Frank Auerbach and the Royal Collection

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For more on Arts & Literature click here

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By Simon Smith