Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor), born on April 21, 1926 in London and died on September 8, 2022 in Scotland at Balmoral Castle, was the queen of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth kingdoms from February 6, 1952 to her death.
At birth, Elizabeth II was third in the order of succession to the throne after her uncle and father. She began to make herself really known at the time of the Second World War when she enlisted in the medical service of the army. On 20 November 1947, she married Philip Mountbatten, Prince of Greece and Denmark who became Prince Consort at the coronation of the Queen, with whom she had four children: Charles III, Anne, Andrew of York
and Edward of Wessex.
When her father George VI died on February 6, 1952, she became queen at the age of 25 and was crowned on June 2, 1953. This coronation allows her to be the queen of seven independent Commonwealth states: South Africa, Australia, Canada, Ceylon, New Zealand, Pakistan and the United Kingdom.
This document is a painting made by Richard Stone. We can see the BBC portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. According to BBC.com, Richard took three years to paint this portrait, which he gifted to Colchester in 1992.
In this portrait, we can see the queen’s side profile. She’s sitting on a red throne.
She is dressed in white and gold.
She’s wearing a crown, earrings, gloves, a long white dress and on her back, a cape.
She is enlightened at the center by the only light source of the portrait.
The background is only made of black.
We guess that this painting is a sort of transition between Elizabeth II’s death, and Charles III taking the throne.
The start of a new era.
It is the last image we keep about her.
The possible message of the artist is to show Her Majesty’s power, and that even if she is not alive anymore, she will always be powerful and respected.
We will tell our future kids about her.
She is the only queen we knew and a whole nation is mourning.
Plus, Queen Elisabeth II isn’t looking at us. It seems like she’s overthinking about her achievements, her whole life, with a blank stare.
It’s the end of an era.
She’s sitting like she’s about to leave, in a very cold way, just as if she were about to turn herself completely, and give the throne to the future king.
Moreover, there is a powerful contrast between the black background and the white color at the foreground, with her cape and her dress.
The white represents peace, purity and perfection, in order for us to keep a great image about the queen.
She reigned for 70 years, which is the biggest reign of the whole world and means that she met many French presidents, for instance Charles de Gaulle, Georges Pompidou, Francois Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac or our actual president, Emmanuel Macron.
For us, this is a very important portrait because notably of its hidden message.
The contrast between the black background and the white foreground is very intelligent and it was the perfect choice as a “definitive image” of Elizabeth II.
Lilo & Shayane
