Sitting comfortably: a selection of portraits through the years

Pietro Annigoni, 1955 Fishmongers’ Hall

The 1955 work by Italian artist Pietro Annigoni, who created a series of images of the monarch, was painted for the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers. It shows the Queen in a noble pose wearing the robes of the Order of the Garter against a pastoral backdrop. During this year, Princess Margaret, the Queen’s sister, called off plans to marry Grp Capt Peter Townsend.

Michael Leonard, 1985-86 National Portrait Gallery

This relaxed and informal portrait was the result of a sitting in the Yellow Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace, and shows the monarch wearing bright yellow attire while modestly adorned with familiar pearls. By her side, the smiling Queen holds one of her famous corgis, Spark. In the year this painting was completed, the Duke of York married Sarah Ferguson.

Lucian Freud, 2000-01

This wrinkled, beady-eyed image of the Queen was not warmly received by critics of the time who found the small work deeply unflattering. During this time in her reign, the Queen’s mother celebrated her 100th birthday. While the monarch’s face looks imposing, scowling beneath a heavy crown worn at the request of Freud, the portrait itself measures only six inches across.

Rolf Harris, 2005

The now disgraced television presenter painted Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II – An 80th Birthday Portrait in 2005, the year the Prince of Wales married the Duchess of Cornwall. Criticised for the Queen’s toothy grin, it was unveiled at Buckingham Palace after being completed following two sittings filmed by the BBC. After Harris’s fall from grace, it disappeared from public view.