Bonny Balmoral Part II

Photo: Keystone/Getty.

I love this photograph of the Queen, taken at her much beloved Balmoral Castle in 1972. Seated at her personal writing desk, and surrounded by her famous corgi companions, the image feels intimate and spontaneous. The elegant array of trinkets covering her desk, rich green tartan carpeting, and blonde wood furnishings give us a glimpse into her personal aesthetic sensibility. It's her pose, however--pert, graceful, and relaxed--that seems to me the most telling. The poise, focus, and incredible reserves of inner strength for which the late royal leader was known seem captured in her softly fixed gaze.

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