Her personality has made Elizabeth II a perfect icon representing both the person and the essence of the state
She is the most portrayed woman in history. It has inspired artists such as Lucian Freud and Andy Warhol. It illustrates banknotes, coins and the profile is so recognizable that the British are the only stamps in the world that do not require the name of the country issuing them to be stamped. No one doubts where they come from.
Throughout her very long reign, Elizabeth II has perfectly embodied the essence of the icon, that mix of the recognizable and the mysterious. And, as the director of the National Portrait Gallery, Nicholas Cullinan, put it, “No icon has influenced artists more than the Queen, because she ultimately represents so much more than herself.”
Hair. Bag. The brightly colored coats with the matching hat. The corgi puppies. The statue of Elizabeth II seems to have been polished over time to be easily recognizable. It has been depicted more than 200 times. Graffiti was created with his image, holograms, even a Barbie doll. Little plastic dolls of his figure, nodding their heads and waving their hands, populate London souvenir shops. Rarely is there a house in the UK that doesn’t have a cup, saucer or some sort of memento with his face on it. No one likes the British Royal Family trading the institution and selling crockery, tea boxes or even kitchen towels on the occasion of a royal wedding, coronation, birthday or anniversary.
It has been used for film and television, either to represent his life or to give performances in which he generally embodies the essence of the British and the solemn. Of course also irreverence, as in ‘Catch it as you can’ or ‘The Simpsons’. Being a national symbol and being human at the same time requires constant walking on a tightrope. Elizabeth II -and now Charles-, Andrew Marr recalls in his biography ‘The Diamond Queen’, “is not the symbol of the people.” The monarch personifies the state. And how is the state portrayed?
There are many who have done it over the years, although perhaps few like the photographer Chris Levine have managed to capture these two faces of the Queen’s figure with equal subtlety: the position and the person. In ‘Equanimity’ (Equanimity), an Elizabeth II wearing a diamond crown looks calmly into the camera. That’s the setting. The same image, but with eyes closed, entitled ‘Lightness of Being’, taken during a break from the same photo shoot, portrays the person.
The Queen, a friend of the monarch, told Andrew Marr in confidence, “Never cease to be, you know, ‘the Queen’.” That is, he has internalized the function in such a way that person and institution have been inseparable. All the generations we live in have known her, but who really knew her? In its secrecy and its mystery is the myth. And from myth to icon there is a step.
For former Labor Secretary of State David Owen, Elizabeth II has “had the courage to be boring”. “Everyone wants to be interesting, but being boring requires discipline. You won’t meet the real person at a formal dinner, and you shouldn’t,” he claims in another biography of the monarch, “Queen of the World.” , by Robert Hardman Despite everything, he was also a person with a sense of humor and understood the importance of popular culture perfectly.
Unforgettable was his performance alongside actor Daniel Craig, who then played the role of Agent 007 James Bond, at the opening of the 2012 London Olympics, in which both simulated parachuting from a helicopter. Or, more recently, the video in which she played with Paddington Bear during the platinum anniversary in 2022, in which Elizabeth II came into play and revealed one of the great mysteries of her reign: what did she carry in the bag that accompanied her forever?
Apparently it was a “for later” jam sandwich.
Source: La Verdad
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