Queen Elizabeth II in the Arts: Seven decades of respect (2024)

It is March 1952, Elizabeth II had become queen 20 days earlier. Dorothy Wilding, the official palace photographer, takes her first shot: black and white, in profile, formal, showing the queen in a bustier, with a diamond necklace and pearl earrings.

The tone is set. Seven years after the end of the Second World War, in a United Kingdom that had been victorious but was on its knees, the monarchy was not to be trifled with. The following year, Cecil Beaton continued in the same vein. The fashion photographer took the official portrait for the queen's coronation and chose to show the young Elizabeth, 27 years old, seated in Westminster Abbey, resplendent in her ceremonial crown and ermine coat with her sceptre.

If the official image was controlled with an iron fist, the portraits made outside the control of the palace were just as respectful. Lord Beaverbrook, the owner of the Daily Express, then a large-circulation tabloid, instructed his editors: "Nothing but happy royal news." In the United Kingdom, cartoonists had had a long tradition of sending up the monarchy – two centuries earlier, George III was depicted defecating on his kingdom and George IV was shown in bed with one of his many mistresses. But in the patriotic atmosphere of the post-war period, there was no question of attacking the delicate young queen in this way.

"I just wanted to make her a human being, to show that she was like us"

An exhibition organized by the Cartoon Museum in London in 2012 displayed the first drawing of Elizabeth II published in the press. Celebrating her 21st birthday, the princess is presented as a kind of Snow White figure, receiving the fairies coming to bless her for her entry into adulthood. Then, for two decades, she was shown only from behind or in profile, or not at all: many drawings only refer to the sovereign. It was not until 1967 we finally saw her face, thanks to cartoonist Wally Fawkes. "I just wanted to make her a human being, to show that she was like us," he recalled in 2012. "But there was no question of making her a monster: she has no power."

A trivialized image

The Swinging Sixties and its cultural revolution changed this approach. The reverential tone fell out of step with the times, while the queen's delayed reaction to the tragedy of the Welsh village of Aberfan – on October 21, 1966, 116 children and 28 adults died when a coal tip collapsed – also shocked many.

Elizabeth II then tried a unique experiment: to let the cameras in on her private life. After dispelling her mother's reluctance, she allowed a television crew to follow her for a year. The result, directed by Richard Cawston, a BBC documentary filmmaker, fascinated the public.

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