Her Majesty, The Queen

Pencil Portrait by Antonio Bosano.

Her Majesty, The Queen Pencil Portrait
To see a larger preview, please click the image.

Shopping Basket

The quality of the prints are at a much higher level compared to the image shown on the left.

Order

A3 Pencil Print-Price £45.00-Purchase

A4 Pencil Print-Price £30.00-Purchase

*Limited edition run of 250 prints only*

All Pencil Prints are printed on the finest Bockingford Somerset Velvet 255 gsm paper.

P&P is not included in the above prices.

Comments

I may not sleep out on the streets for a glimpse of her Majesty at times of major Royal events, and I’ve neither ever bought a Union Jack flag nor waved it in public. I may even have opinions about certain members of The Royal Family that are best left unsaid, but I cannot bear criticism of our Monarch. Yes, she may well look bored to tears at Wimbledon, but in all honesty, could you withstand a lifetime spent fully engaged in a miriad of activities that interest you not one jot?

The vast majority of British people – myself included – have simply never known life without Queen Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God Queen of this Realm and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. Since ascending to the throne in 1952, the monarch has seen twelve Prime Ministers serve Britain, and lived through another twelve US Presidents. She’s now 92. At some point, and hopefully not for several years yet, her reign will come to an end.

A failure to understand what will happen when she dies, is a failure to comprehend the sheer importance of her very existence.

But what will actually happen?

For at least 12 days — between her passing, the funeral and beyond — Britain will grind to a halt. The chaos will cost the UK economy billions in lost earnings. The stock markets and banks are likely to close. And both the funeral and the subsequent coronation will become formal national holidays, each with an estimated economic hit to gross domestic product of £1.2 billion to £6 billion ($1.6 billion to $7.9 billion), to say nothing of organisational costs.

But to focus on the financial disruption doesn’t begin to describe the sheer magnitude of the queen’s death. It will be an event unlike anything Britain has seen since the end of World War II.

There will be trivial disruptions — the BBC will cancel all comedy shows, for example — and jarring cultural changes. Prince Charles may change his name, and the words of the national anthem will be changed too. The British Commonwealth might even unravel completely.

The deaths of Princess Diana and the Queen mother both brought on waves of public mourning and hysteria. But that of Queen Elizabeth II, due to her longevity and fundamental place atop British society, will be on a whole new level.

Most British people have simply never known life without the queen.

It will be a strange, uncertain time.

Recommended viewing

Royal Family (1969)

Recommended – naturally, for its insightfulness – but unwatched by one than one generation since its original transmission. The documentary was regarded as so intrusive and revealing of the Royal Family that it had to be withdrawn, and for over 40 years it has been locked away at Her Majesty’s command in the BBC vaults.

No one has seen it since, although intermittent clips have appeared in other Royal documentaries throughout the years. We’ve been deceived, along the way, into believing that the entire programme is lurking somewhere, just ready to be rediscovered, yet whilst many have tried to contact the BBC and the Palace, all have failed to gain access to it.

Copies may reside in private collections – the very wealthiest owned domestic video recorders from the mid 60’s – but for the general population, the possibility of home taping was still ten years away. The late Bob Monkhouse is known to have owned a Sony VC-2000, which was first launched upon the US market in 1965, retailing for $695. A purchase, in excess of £7,000 in today’s terms and more expensive than some budget priced cars, was clearly beyond the financial scope of most individuals. A thorough inventory of Monkhouse’s vast archive collection may yet yield a copy of “Royal Family.”