Lightness of Being by Chris Levine, giclée print in colours from 2021, in an edition of 1000 – sold for £3000 at Sworders.
It was taken in 2004 when Levine was commissioned by the Jersey Heritage Trust to create a portrait of the monarch to mark the Channel Island’s 800 years of allegiance to the crown.
While the commissioned work shows Elizabeth looking directly at the camera with her eyes opened (it was titled Equanimity), Levine also exhibited this better-known picture titled Lightness of Being showing her resting between shots during the sitting.
Lightness of Being has since been reproduced as a limited-edition photograph as well as in a variety of print forms, each now with its own price level on the secondary market. In 2011, for example, a 3D lenticular print was released in a signed edition of 200, one of which made £25,000 at Tate Ward in April 2019.
More recently at Sworders (25% buyer’s premium) in Stansted Mountfitchet on April 5, a giclée print in colours from 2021 was offered with a £2000-3000 estimate. From an edition of 1000, published by Dominic Guerrini Fine Art, the 2ft 11in x 2ft 4in (90 x 70cm) unframed print on aluminium, shown above, was part of the so-called Freedom edition. It sold at £3000.
A nice platinum jubilee present perhaps?
