The portrait of Queen Elizabeth II was commissioned in 2004 to mark 800 years of allegiance to the Crown by the Island of Jersey. It was an incredible and career-changing moment for the photographer Chris Levine, who was born to a Canadian father and a Scottish mother in 1960.
Prior to the day, Levine had been asked by the Queen's stylist what he would like Her Majesty to wear. Levine selected the diamond diadem, made in 1820 for George IV, and worn by the Queen on the way to her coronation.
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"It was daunting, the most portrayed woman in history and the subject of so many seminal artists," said Chris Levine at Sotheby's in 2017. "I wanted to make a portrait that was an evolutionary step forward from all that had been created to date. It was a challenge to which I applied my heart and soul."
On the day, Chris was able to capture over 8,000 images of the Queen from two sittings. In a private audience with the Queen at Windsor, the artist sat down with the monarch to discuss which photographs to select for the Jersey Heritage Trust commission.
In 2011, the piece, entitled Equanimity, was presented to the National Portrait Gallery by the people of Jersey. The Queen's elegance and calm inspired the title, with equanimity meaning a level of liberating stillness.
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In 2012, the image of the Queen was repurposed in a new work, The Diamond Queen, featuring 1,100 white diamonds, created in partnership with Asprey to commemorate her Diamond Jubilee. The portrait was also featured on a holographic £10 Jersey stamp and the £100 Jersey banknote.
Between the sitting in 2004 and these releases, Levine experimented on the images he had captured. Lightness of Being was produced from the sittings for Equanimity. In Lightness of Being, Levine captured the Queen in between takes, with her eyes serenely closed. Photographer Mario Testino once proclaimed that Levine's work was the most beautiful portrait of the Queen. In 2008, editions of Chris Levine's Lightness of Being first came onto the market at £975 each.
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In 2012, Levine's images of the Queen were featured in the major traveling exhibition, 'Queen: Art and Image' at London's National Portrait Gallery. In June that same year, Levine’s Equanimity was on the cover of TIME.
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Levine has staged light performances and exhibitions at New York's Radio City commissioned by MoMA and MATE museum in Lima, as well as in many of London's leading galleries and institutions.
He also completed another historic portrait to commemorate the Dalai Lama's 80th birthday to raise funds for the victims of Nepal's 2015 earthquake. He is only the second artist to take a formal portrait of His Holiness, the previous being Annie Leibovitz.
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In 2017, one of Levine's Lightness of Being photographs sold for £187,500 at Sotheby's London, setting a record for the artist.
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This is an updated version of an article originally published on 17 January 2018.