Queen Elizabeth II caused 'shock' over QE2 name says expert

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The National Gallery is putting on a show next year to mark the centenary of Freud’s birth. The Queen’s portrait will be one of over 60 works borrowed from museums and private collections from around the world. The painting received mixed reviews when it was completed, with one critic saying it made Her Majesty look like “one of her corgis.”

The British Sovereign, however, kept her thoughts on the portrait to herself and never said publicly whether she approved or disapproved.

According to William Feaver’s biography of Freud, the Queen said to the artist when he delivered his painting to her in person: “Very nice of you to do this.

“I’ve very much enjoyed watching you mix your colours.”

The exhibition will examine the way in which Freud changed his practice over time.

The National Gallery said the aim was “to present new perspectives on Freud’s art, focusing on his tireless and ever-searching commitment to the medium of painting”.

The Queen attended a number of sittings for the portrait at St James’ Palace between May 2000 and December 2001.

It wasn’t commissioned, but done on Freud’s request as a gift to the Queen.

He asked Her Majesty to put on her diamond crown for the sittings – the one that she wears for the opening of the British parliament and in her portrait on stamps and banknotes.

The artists said this was because he “had always liked the way her head looks on stamps, wearing a crown” and he “wanted to make some reference to the extraordinary position she holds, of being the monarch.”

The portrait received a withering critique from Robin Simon, the editor of the British Art Journal.

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Writing in The Sun, he commented: “It makes her look like one of her corgis who has suffered a stroke.

“It is a huge error for Lucian Freud. He has gone a portrait too far.”

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