About this artwork
The Queen was photographed for this portrait on 19 March 2014 at Buckingham Palace in London, in the private study where she has her weekly audience with the Prime Minister. Her Majesty wears a gold and diamond brooch featuring thistles, Scotland’s national emblem. Harry Benson has photographed The Queen on a number of occasions since the 1950s, but this is the first formally commissioned portrait of Her Majesty he has created. Benson has said: ‘I first photographed Her Majesty in Scotland opening a coal mine in 1957, and thereafter visiting towns in Lanarkshire, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and the Western Highlands, and later in London at the opening of Parliament . . . but the most memorable was when I had the opportunity to take an [this] official portrait in Buckingham Palace.’
Published before 2020
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artist:Harry Benson (born 1929) Scottish
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title:Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
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date created:2014
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materials:Chromogenic print
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measurements:76.20 x 101.60 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Bought with the aid of The Friends of the National Galleries of Scotland
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accession number:PGP 859
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gallery:
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depicted:
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subject:
Harry Benson
Harry Benson
Benson’s career as a photojournalist has been extraordinary. Born in Glasgow, he left school aged thirteen and began working for a local paper, the Hamilton Advertiser. In 1958 he graduated to the cut-throat centre of the tabloid press on London’s Fleet Street, working for the Daily Sketch and then...
