Description
Andy Warhol’s iconic image of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II hovers between the formality of a traditional portrait and the brashness of modern advertising. The photograph on which the image is based is an official Jubilee portrait taken in 1977. This vibrant screenprint is one of a number of portraits of Elizabeth II from a series by Warhol entitled Reigning Queens, which also includes images of the Queens of Denmark and the Netherlands. The technique of screenprinting enabled him to repeat the image with different colour combinations. Each block of colour is slightly misaligned, suggesting the imperfections of mass-produced commercial images.

On Christmas Day 2007, Queen Elizabeth II will deliver her 56th Christmas Speech, a tradition which was started by her father, King George V, in 1932. The speech is broadcast across the nation, through television and radio stations, and 2007 will be the second consecutive year that it is also available to download as a podcast.

Andy Warhol, one of the most important artists of the twentieth century, was born Andrew Warhola to Czechoslovakian parents in Pittsburgh. He studied painting and drawing at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh between 1945 and 1949, before becoming a highly successful commercial advertising artist in the 1950s.