Find out more

Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust

Rupert Alexander’s portrait of Her Majesty The Queen will be hung in the Council Room of the Royal Warrant Holders Association in London. This new portrait was the last in a series by the artist, Rupert Alexander, 35, who had painted HRH The Prince of Wales and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh at the age of 23; the youngest artist to paint a member of the British Royal Family since the 17th Century.

The artist had three sittings with the Queen at Buckingham Palace. "During the sittings I painted oil sketches to record the tone and colour," Alexander explains, "and to experiment with various gestures to find what best expressed those elements of her character I was trying to capture. I decided to limit the portrait to head and shoulders as I wanted to focus on the more human and intimate aspects of her character, rather than cluttering the painting with the formal symbols of her public role."

Alexander studied painting at the Florence Academy of Art and Charles Cecil Studios, having been awarded a QEST scholarship in 1996. Richard Peck, Secretary of the Royal Warrant Holders Association, which endows QEST, said, "We are delighted with this portrait. It has been tremendous to see Rupert become more established since he received his QEST scholarship at the age of 21, and he has achieved an excellent reputation. He is such an inspiration to all of the QEST scholars starting out today." 

^{Photo of Bill Gunn MW, RWHA President 2010 and QEST Trustee, shaking hands with Rupert Alexander, the Artist and QEST scholar (1996)}