Intimate studies for one of the best-known portraits of the late Queen Elizabeth II have gone on sale.
At 2.3m high, Jeff Stultiens’ (1944-2023) work, to celebrate the 2003 golden jubilee, is thought to be the most monumental portrait of The Queen ever produced.
When it was unveiled the larger-than-life depiction of the monarch, regally attired in garter robes, caught the attention of the world.
To produce the work, commissioned by Oxford University’s Oriel College, Blackpool-born Stultiens was granted six hour-long sessions with Her Majesty in the drawing room of Buckingham Palace.
The resulting unseen preparatory works, ranging from oils to pencil sketches, are on sale at Hansons Auctioneers’ online auction at its Hertfordshire saleroom in Royston, ending on August 24, with estimates ranging from £80-£2,000.
In an interview with BBC Breakfast when the portrait was unveiled, Stultiens called The Queen “very obliging and very co-operative”.
He said: “It’s a straight painting. It’s absolutely straight. It looks like the Queen and for me it feels like the Queen.”
The painter said he wanted the portrait to be regal and asked for The Queen to be dressed in her garter robes.
He said: “I found her pretty interesting. We had very interesting conversations, the Queen was very perceptive and quite knowledgeable about art.”
Gifted portraitist
As a child in 1953, Stultiens witnessed Queen Elizabeth II’s limousine on the day of her coronation.
After leaving Blackpool, the artist studied at the Camberwell School of Art in London in the 1960s. A member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, he went on to live in Toddington, Bedfordshire, where he died in 2003, aged 79.
His paintings reside in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery as well as several other important national collections.
The 207-lot collection, consigned by the artist’s ex-wife and the couple’s two daughters, includes portraits of His Eminence Cardinal Basil Hume, the percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, the pioneering respiratory doctor Professor Dame Margaret Turner-Warwick and Professor Dame Carol Black (a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery and renowned physician).
A spokesperson for Hansons said: “Stultiens was a gifted portrait painter, always striving to convey the inner qualities of a person as much as their outward appearance, even with notable sitters such as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.”
Auction Details
Auction: The sale Jeff Stultiens: A Lifetime of Portraiture
Auction end date: 24th August 2025 | 7pm
Location: Hansons’ Hertfordshire Saleroom
Auction contact: [email protected]
Catalogue/bidding: www.hansonslive.co.uk | www.the-saleroom.com
