The present example is a unique trial proof featuring colour combinations that differ from the other works in the series, carefully selected by Warhol and meticulously applied. As such, the work may be compared to the artist’s iconic colour silkscreen paintings from the early 1960s, such as the Campbell’s Soup cans and the Marilyn Monroe series, which established him as an artist of international standing. Queen Elizabeth II was created at the height of Warhol’s career, just two years before his death in New York, and is today regarded as one of his most recognisable and enduring motifs. Here, one of Pop Art’s foremost figures is united with one of the most iconic royals of the modern era.

This is one of only thirty unique colour trial proofs that Warhol produced of Queen Elizabeth II. These individual colour variants rarely appear on the market, and since 2013 no comparable example—featuring the distinctive blue-green facial tone seen here—has been offered at auction. The motif forms part of the Reigning Queens portfolio, which also includes portraits of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, and Queen Ntombi Twala of Swaziland. In addition to these unique trial proofs, the series comprises four variations of each queen, issued in editions of forty. There is also a so-called Royal Edition, in which the prints are embellished with diamond dust, in an edition of thirty.

The portrait of Queen Elizabeth II is based on an official photograph taken by Peter Grugeon at Windsor Castle in 1975, published in connection with her Silver Jubilee in 1977. The image has also been widely used on British currency, reflecting Warhol’s interest in mass production and image dissemination. According to a statement from The Royal Collection, Warhol reduced Grugeon’s photograph to a mask-like representation in which individual features are subdued in favour of a symbol of royal power. Four prints from the Royal Edition were incorporated into the British Royal Collection in 2012 and are the only works in the collection for which the Queen neither sat nor commissioned.

The Queen is depicted wearing the Vladimir Tiara, the Golden Jubilee necklace, and the sash of the Order of the Garter. Warhol appropriated Grugeon’s photograph, cropped it, and brought it closer to the viewer, making the portrait the unequivocal focus of the image. The Queen meets the viewer head-on with a composed smile. Parallels may be drawn with Warhol’s portraits of Mick Jagger from a decade earlier. Through the use of strong, vivid colours—not least the radiant pink tiara and the blue-green face unique to this example—Warhol transforms the portrait into a work at the very core of Pop Art. The blocks of colour surrounding the subject recall the Ladies and Gentlemen series from 1975. The American magazine Time aptly summarised Warhol’s approach: he treats the Queen like any other celebrity, frozen in time and colour.

Warhol himself expressed the ambition to become “as famous as the Queen of England”. His drive, and his fascination with advertising, mass media and celebrity culture, underpinned a series of iconic portraits, from Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor to this captivating image of Queen Elizabeth II. The portrait conveys both the ceremonial and the personal: royal splendour, authority, and a hint of vulnerability, alluding to her accession to the throne at just twenty-five years of age. At the same time, the image emerges as a pure pop icon, rich in colour and form. Although Warhol was initially dissatisfied with the reception of the series at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York—believing that American audiences lacked interest in royalty, and that the series was intended for a British context—the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II has become one of his most enduring motifs and is now sought after by collectors worldwide.

Image size: 100 × 80 cm
Framed: 113 × 93 cm

Estimate: SEK 1,800,000 – 2,000,000

Viewing: May 8–19, Nybrogatan 32, Stockholm

Live auction: May 20

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