The Queen's Andy Warhol print is actually a conservative choice

The Royal Collection's latest purchase of an Andy Warhol portrait of the Queen shows great caution, writes Florence Waters.

Detail of Andy Warhol's portrait of the Queen

The Queen is the most portrayed royal in history – and among the most popular subjects for portrait artists ever. She has taken centre stage in various art exhibitions in her Jubilee year, notably a Cecil Beaton photography show at the V&A and a historic survey of her changing image at the National Portrait Gallery (both excellent shows are touring the country). 

It’s appropriate then that the Queen’s Royal Collection have invested in a new, contemporary portrait of Elizabeth in this year before their own exhibition opens at Windsor. It’s also appropriate that, when her face feels more familiar to us than ever before, the chosen portrait will be presented in a series of four. The Queen’s face, which adorns our stamps and bank notes, is after all a commodity – and that’s the idea that fascinated Warhol above all else. 

Some may be surprised to see that, bending tradition slightly, curators have chosen not a painted royal Diamond Jubilee portrait, but a splashy series of four late Warhols, all screen-printed in monochrome, with abstract collage effect colour-block squares and complete with sparkly tiaras made from crushed glass. 

However, the portraits are actually a pretty conservative investment. Warhol dominates the contemporary art sales rooms like no other artist, so really these prints – not one-offs, but part of a limited edition (estimated at £150,000 so on the cheaper scale for Warhol) – show the Royal Collection exercising great caution in a new market. Of course, with these glamorous shots, there’s no risk of repeating the Lucian Freud disaster again, either! 

For the artist who once said “I want to be as famous as the Queen of England” you might think that his portrait taking place up next to royals painted by Van Dyck and Holbein would have delighted Warhol. But I wonder … 

What’s sad about this purchase is that, in buying just these four prints of Elizabeth II, the Royal Collection have divided up what should have been a wider series of beautiful Queens, including Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Margrethe of Denmark and Queen Ntombi Twala of Swaziland. The original series boldly puts all these beauties on a level paying field, asking us to compare them, our relationship with each of them, and observe how differently each one carries their power.