Style Imitating Art: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Lucian Freud

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Terri of Meadow Tree Style, and Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Terri, and Shelbee or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

The inspiration artwork was curated by me. You can read why I chose this work here.

The Artwork

“Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II” by Lucian Freud

What the Queen was wearing for this portrait…

About the Artist: Lucian Freud

Lucian Michael Freud was born on December 8, 1922, in Berlin, the second of three sons to Austrian architect Ernst L. Freud, who was the fourth child of the world renowned psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, and German-born Lucie Brasch Freud. In 1933, the Freud family emigrated to London to escape the rise of Nazism in Germany and Lucian officially became a British subject in 1939. He briefly studied at the Central School of Art in London but had greater success at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing where he studied from 1939 until 1942. In 1941, he also served as a merchant seaman in an Atlantic convoy but was injured and discharged from service in 1942, at which point he enrolled in Goldsmiths’ College at the University of London where he studied for one year.

Lucian received his first commission in 1943 to illustrate a book of poetry, The Glass Tower by Nicholas Moore. This commission led to Lucian traveling around Europe sharing his art throughout his life, but he always remained a Londoner until his death at the age of 88 on July 20, 2011.

Lucian Freud specialized in figurative art and was later characterized with a group of other figurative artists working in London at the time as the “School of London.” Freud’s earliest paintings were very small and reflective of German Impressionism as well as Surrealism. After the end of the war, however, his painting technique transitioned into a more precise linear style in comparison to the more abstract style of his youth.

In the 1950s, he began focusing on portraiture, mostly nudes, to the almost complete exclusion of any other types of works. He painted from real life and spent copious amounts of time on each work, often demanding the subject’s presence even while he was working on the background. His portraits could take well over a year to complete with his models sometimes sitting for a few thousand hours during that time.

In the 1940s, Freud was part of a gay throuple (which certainly was not called a throuple in the 1940s) with fellow artists Adrian Ryan and John Minton. His next relationship was a heterosexual affair with Lorna Garman who was 11 years his senior and he later married her niece Kitty Garman, who was 4 years his junior, in 1948. Together they had two daughters, Annabel and Annie, before divorcing in 1952. (Does anyone else find it strange to give your children such similar names, Annabel and Annie? They are literally the same name but different versions, aren’t they?)

That same year, Lucian eloped to Paris with Guinness heir Lady Caroline Blackwood, where they wed in 1953. They divorced six years later in 1959. Although he was married only two times and fathered only two children with his first wife, it is rumored that Lucian Freud fathered as many as 40 children. While this number is widely accepted as an exaggeration, fourteen biological children have been identified, two from his first wife and twelve from various mistresses. I wonder if his lifestyle made Grandpa Sigmund proud! Oh no…old Sigmund died when Lucian was just 17 years old so I guess grandpa didn’t get a chance to really know his grandson.

These Freuds are a fascinating family, indeed. There is a very tempting rabbit hole inviting me to go in. But I won’t. Let’s talk about the Queen instead!

About the Art: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

After his first commission in 1943 to illustrate The Glass Tower, Freud never accepted commissions again. Despite receiving many requests for portraits, the artist categorically refused all such proposals, choosing instead to only paint people whom he found interesting. In fact, his 2001 portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was not even commissioned. Instead, Freud approached the Queen with his request to depict her in an upcoming work and Her Majesty readily agreed.

In keeping with Freud’s tedious demands on the subjects of his portraits, the Queen patiently sat for long hours over the course of 19 months for this portrait to be completed. This is an astonishing amount of time considering the portrait only measures 15.2 × 23.5 cm (6 x 9.25 in).

Upon completion of the portrait, it was met with mixed reviews by the British public with some labeling Freud “the most brilliant artist of our time” while others called on to the Queen to jail him for such an “ugly” portrait stating this was his greatest failure as an artist.

I disagree with that second school of thought. I find this to be a brilliant work of art and I do not see anything ugly in this portrait at all. I think it is a very realistic likeness of the Queen. Because Freud was not commissioned by the royal family to paint this portrait, he was not bound by any duty or obligation thereby giving him the freedom to portray the monarch exactly as he saw her. And honestly, this is exactly as I saw her, too. Apparently, it is how she saw herself as well. Although the Queen never actually verbalized her thoughts about this portrait, she seemed very pleased with it. The painting remains in the royal collection of the British monarchy.

Check out this article that claims Freud painted the Queen as his alter ego. Oooh, that is fascinating.

Resources/References:

• Lucian Freud: Wikipedia
• Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II: ArtHive
• Portrait of Queen ‘looking like a corgi’ to feature in Lucian Freud exhibition
• Lucian Freud’s Queen Elizabeth II, Part 1
• Did Queen Elizabeth ever wear jeans? Here’s what we know

About My Outfit

This was absolutely not at all what I planned to style for a portrait of the Queen. In fact, I was so set on this blue outfit that I struggled to get outside of that box in my mind. It has all the right colors and it features my grandmother’s shawl which I thought would be really fun since the Queen was like the quintessential grandmother figure.

As I was brainstorming out loud ways to style my grandmother’s shawl for this post, I mentioned about wearing jeans when Jeff chimed in with two words that immediately changed the trajectory of my styling thoughts.

He said, “Canadian tuxedo.”

And I was sold. What better thing to wear to represent a portrait of the monarch of Canada! Although the Queen herself would have never donned head to toe denim, I thought that bit of contradiction in my outfit would be fun, too.

Did you know that Queen Elizabeth rarely ever wore trousers in public and has been photographed fewer than 10 times in 70 years donning pants? So it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to learn that Her Majesty never wore jeans. Or at least, she has never been seen by anyone wearing denim.

In keeping with the soft blues and grays in the painting, I chose a pair of light washed flared jeans and my medium wash pearl embellished denim jacket. I mean, if the Queen were ever to wear denim, I imagine she would have wanted something a little extra like pearly denim!

The Queen was known for her bold monochromatic suits and a Canadian tuxedo really works as a monochromatic suit. While Her Majesty generally opted for solid colors, she would add prints with her scarves often choosing florals, so I went with a blue floral infinity scarf that I secured with a velvet hair scrunchie for some aded interest. I wore pearl earrings like the Queen and added a big crystal statement necklace which reminded me of her tiara. Unfortunately my scarf is covering most of it, but you can see it more clearly in this post. My silver velvet boots seemed royally appropriate to complete my outfit.

I wasn’t really sure I liked this outfit when I looked in the mirror, but after photographing it I realized that I liked it a lot. What do you think? Does it work? Would you wear it? Do you think the royals would approve?

Now it’s your turn! Did you style something inspired by this portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II? Be sure to check out Salazar’s interpretation of the painting as well as Terri’s take on it. If you want to join us and be featured in my gallery post on Wednesday, February 1, 2023, please send me your photos by Tuesday, January 31, 2023, at 10:00 p.m. EST and then check back for the group gallery of art inspired looks.

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

Linking up with these Fabulous Link Parties.

Outfit Details: Denim Jacket-Burlington Coat Factory / Turtleneck-Target / Jeans and Earrings-Charlotte Russe / Scarf-Old Navy / Belt-Torrid / Boots-DSW / Fingerless Mitts-Amazon