Photographer unveils Queen picture

12 April 2012

An official portrait of the Queen by America's most famous celebrity photographer has been unveiled ahead of the monarch's tour of the US.

The Queen was captured on camera by Annie Leibovitz, known for her work for Rolling Stone magazine and Vanity Fair.

The official picture shows the monarch seated in the White Drawing Room of the Buckingham Palace state apartments, gazing towards an open window and dressed in a white fur stole, pale gold embroidered evening dress and diamond tiara.

Her hands are gently clasped and the atmospheric shot shows her composed and regal.

The green lawns of the Palace gardens can be seen through the large open window.

The image was taken to mark the sovereign's six-day trip to America with the Duke of Edinburgh, which begins on Thursday.

Leibovitz is perhaps best known for her photograph of a naked John Lennon hugging a fully clothed Yoko Ono. The picture for Rolling Stone was taken just hours before Lennon was murdered in New York City in 1980.

Leibovitz once photographed Hollywood actress Demi Moore naked and heavily pregnant for the cover of Vanity Fair.

The wide shot of the monarch shows some furnishings, the reflection of a chandelier in a mirror and a vase of pink and cream roses in the drawing room.

It is similar to the framing Cecil Beaton sometimes used when photographing the Queen Mother inside the Palace.

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