Ben Enwonwu’s portrait of Queen Elizabeth II occupies a rare intersection of diplomacy and artistic innovation. Commissioned in connection with the Queen’s 1956 visit to Nigeria, the project entrusted one of Africa’s foremost modernists with shaping an official likeness of a European monarch at a moment when Nigeria stood on the threshold of independence. The commission reflected both state ceremony and the recognition of Enwonwu’s stature in global art.
The London Sittings (1957)
In March 1957, Enwonwu began sittings with the Queen at Buckingham Palace, later continuing at Sir William Reid Dick’s Maida Vale studio. Contemporary notes describe twelve sittings, eight at the Palace and four at Maida Vale. He produced preparatory sketches and a working bust to refine the composition before translating it into the final figure.
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Medium and Exhibition
The resulting sculpture was over life-size, showing the Queen seated with her hands folded in her lap. It was completed in London and shown at the Royal Society of British Artists in November 1957. Archival documentation clarifies that the version displayed then was a resin (epoxy) cast, while the bronze was cast later in London—a detail often conflated in early accounts. Critics praised its regal restraint and the fusion of modern form with ceremonial grace.
Unveiling in Lagos (1959)
A crucial chapter came two years later. On 5 November 1959, the bronze was formally unveiled before Nigeria’s House of Representatives in Lagos, marking the opening of its fifth session. Official messages were exchanged between Lagos and Buckingham Palace to commemorate the event. Occurring less than a year before independence, the unveiling positioned Enwonwu’s sculpture as both an imperial token and a herald of a self-governing Nigeria.
A Historic First
Enwonwu became the first African artist to create an official portrait of a European monarch. More than a symbolic milestone, this represented a reversal of artistic direction: a Nigerian modernist defining the sovereign image within his own aesthetic logic. The work signalled that African modernism could engage global power without imitation.
Legacy and Modern Interpretation
Over the decades, scholars have read the statue as an emblem of duality, royal portraiture shaped through African modernist sensibility. Its poised geometry and stylised surfaces echo Enwonwu’s Anyanwu (1955) and subsequent works such as Tutu, uniting local cosmology and international form. Exhibitions and research now regard the Queen’s sculpture as a pivotal bridge between colonial patronage and independent artistic agency.
Return to Public View (2024)
In November 2024, the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) confirmed that Enwonwu’s royal portrait is on permanent display at the National Museum, Onikan, Lagos. The exhibition reconnects the work with Nigerian audiences and situates it within the country’s narrative of modern art and nation-building. Press coverage emphasised its monumental calm and the continuity from the 1956 commission to today’s stewardship.
Reading the Work Today
Encountered in Lagos, the bronze resonates as both emblem and argument, a public collaboration between a British sovereign and a Nigerian artist, and a demonstration of Africa’s capacity to reinterpret global symbols through its own modernism. It stands not merely as a relic of empire but as a testament to artistic agency: evidence that Nigerian modernism shaped, and continues to shape, world art.
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Author’s Note
Commissioned during the Queen’s 1956 Nigeria visit, realised through twelve London sittings in 1957, exhibited that year at the Royal Society of British Artists, and unveiled in Lagos on 5 November 1959, Ben Enwonwu’s over life-size bronze of Queen Elizabeth II remains a landmark of Nigerian modernism. It is acknowledged as the first official portrait of a European monarch by an African artist, now permanently displayed at the National Museum, Onikan, Lagos. Its endurance lies in the fusion of African sculptural rhythm with imperial portraiture at the turning-point of Nigeria’s history.
References
Statue of Elizabeth II, Lagos – Wikipedia (verified chronology, sittings, RBA exhibition and 1959 unveiling). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Elizabeth_II,_Lagos
African Business (2025) — “Newly found works highlight the Nigerian who sculpted the Queen.”
Premium Times Nigeria / NAN (13 Nov 2024) — “National Museum exhibits Enwonwu’s 1956 masterpiece of Queen Elizabeth II.”
