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The never-before-seen portrait, titled Platinum Queen: Felicity, shows the monarch smiling as her aide Angela Kelly made a joke.

The portrait was captured in 2004 at Buckingham Palace by photographer Rob Munday who was commissioned to create the first 3D hologram of the Queen, which was titled Equanimity.

Ms Kelly was helping to rearrange the monarch’s clothes at the time of the relaxed shot, which had remained unnoticed by Mr Munday for almost 19 years before he rediscovered it in his archives last summer.

Mr Munday said: “I had been in the drawing room for several days prior to the photoshoot to set up the studio and when the day arrived, the Queen walked in with Angela and I could immediately see there was a fantastic rapport between the two of them.

“They had this amazing relationship with each other and Angela had this unbelievable way of putting people like me at ease.

“I was doing a test shot which consisted of a one second burst of 30 frames to test the camera and at the exact moment I pressed the button, Angela said something funny to the Queen and she started smiling.”

Photographer Mr Munday wanted to celebrate the friendship between the Queen and her close confidante and dresser when releasing the portrait.

Mr Munday can’t remember what Ms Kelly said to make the monarch smile, but recalled the moment he found the test shot last summer whilst searching through his archives.

He added: “I thought it was a good idea to look over my archive and remembered taking the short burst of images.

“I went through each frame, but this one frame showed the queen in an incredibly natural pose with a twinkle in her eye and a whimsical smile in response to whatever Angela had whispered in her ear.

“The Queen not knowing I was taking images meant she reacted completely naturally.

“I just thought it’s such a beautiful portrait, I have to do something with it and with the jubilee, I thought it was a wonderful way to celebrate it.”

The portrait is being unveiled in central London today and will be on view to the public at 45 Park Lane from May 9 to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant which is scheduled for June 5.

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