The Queen's reimagined 1955 portrait graces Tatler's July issue
'To honour the Queen's global status, I wanted to commission a young Commonwealth artist to create a new portrait of Her Majesty for the cover of our special Platinum Jubilee issue," Tatler Editor Richard Dennen said.
The colourful portrait shows the Queen wearing a green and blue floral dress and the sash and star of the Order of the Garter and holding a patterned fan.
The portrait is based on a photograph of the Queen taken circa 1955, shortly before her 1956 tour of Nigeria. It shows the Queen wearing the sash and star of the Order of the Garter.
"It was a wonderful opportunity for me as an artist to be able to add my name to a historic list of people who have painted the Queen, so I was very excited about it," Oluwole told Tatler in an interview
A striking feature of his portrait is the impasto paint he has used to highlight certain key details: "One of the things that makes the Queen is the crown, and I was looking for a way to capture this differently," he explained.
The same technique is used for the star of the Order of the Garter and the necklace she wears, as well as the diamond bracelet around her wrist, a gift from the Duke of Edinburgh – all of them symbols of her role as Queen. Combined with this are elements that root the painting firmly in the oeuvre of this proudly Nigerian artist. The brocade dress from the original photograph has been given an African flower pattern and the white fur of the ermine robe in her right hand has become a bright turquoise.
Omofemi's painting will be displayed as part of "Power & Image: Royal Portraiture & Iconography" from 28 May to 15 June in London. The exhibition, organized by Sotheby's will feature portraits of each of the seven queens regnant of Britain, including the iconic Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I, on loan from the Woburn Abbey collection.
Tatler’s July issue is on sale from 26th May.
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