The intimate new shot, titled
Platinum Queen: Felicity, shows the monarch smiling after an amusing comment
made by her close confidante and dresser Angela Kelly, who was helping to
rearrange her clothing at the time. It was taken by the holographer Rob Munday
during a 2004 photographic session from which he created ‘Equanimity’ the first
official 3D portrait of the Queen.
Rob has dedicated his newly
discovered image to the friendship between Her Majesty and her aide after
recalling the moment it was taken.
He said: “The
atmosphere was incredibly jovial. Angela Kelly is a very funny woman, very
down-to-earth. And really, really nice, she put us all incredibly at ease. She
would tell jokes, and she’d obviously said something funny to the Queen. And
she sort of laughed at that exact moment I pushed the button to do a test shot.
“Obviously the Queen is
very, very comfortable with Angela Kelly, they have this incredible bond, and
you can see it.”
 |
The intimate portrait will be unveiled on 4 May
Rob does not know what
prompted the monarch to smile, adding: “I doubt that Angela herself would
remember after all these years, but it was clear that they just have this
really great rapport with each other.”
He discovered the striking
portrait among a burst of 32 test shots recorded on his video camera as he set
up the shoot. They were filed away alongside the more than 8,000 images of the
Queen that he took during two sittings in the yellow drawing-room at Buckingham
Palace.
 |
Rob Munday with his portrait of Queen Elizabeth II
“There was just this one
frame in the middle, almost like a God-given frame, it just jumped off the
monitor. It was taken in a 30th of a second and it’s just a really, really nice
portrait. There’s a twinkle in the eye.
“It’s really about the
look and the character conveyed by the portrait, and the fact that you very,
very seldom see portraits like that which are totally natural.”
The portrait is being unveiled
in central London on 4 May and will be on view to the public at 45 Park Lane
from May 9.
