I had to tell ‘very lively’ Queen to sit still, says portrait painter Christian Furr

The image of the Queen has been captured in thousands of photographs and she has sat for countless artists.

A daunting task for any painter, but one young artist got the shock of his life when at the age of just 28, he got the call to paint Her Majesty’s portrait.

Christian Furr was just starting his career as an artist when the Queen chose him to paint her image.

It was 1995 – just as Britpop was exploding – and this young man was keen to do something different.

He wanted to paint the Queen as close up as possible, to capture her warmth and down to earthness, despite being monarch.

When the Queen entered the yellow drawing room at Buckingham Palace, she even asked if she could keep her blanket with her and tried to put Christian Furr at ease.