Portraits of King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain posed for the famed portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz for a series of portraits commissioned by the Bank of Spain earlier this year, to add to the Bank’s art collection in the year of the 10th Anniversary of the King’s Accession to the Spanish Throne.

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The Portraits of King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia were taken by Annie Leibovitz at the Royal Palace of Madrid earlier this year for the Art Collection of the Bank of Spain.

The portraits that the renowned American photographer Annie Leibovitz took of Their Majesties in the majestic Gasparini Hall of the Royal Palace, on February 7, have finally come to light.

These two large-format images, commissioned by the Bank of Spain to occupy a prominent place in its Council Chamber, are not only the largest that the artist has exhibited to date, but also the result of an intense five-hours photo session. During this day, various outfits, jewelry and decorations were tried on, taking care of every detail to capture the essence and solemnity of the moment.

The photographer once again marked a “less dressy moment”, as she already did, or tried to do, when photographing the late Queen Elizabeth II. In the final version, the only one we will see, she opted for one of the simplest shots of Doña Letizia, discarding those in which she wore a diadem and decorations.

King Felipe wore the Collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, the Sash and Star of the Order of Charles III alongside the Stars of the Order of Military Merit, the Order of Naval Merit, and the Order of Aeronautical Merit.

Queen Letizia wore vintage Balenciaga with Queen Victoria Eugenie’s Diamond Earrings and the Diamond Rivière from the Joyas de Pasar. Like she did with the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2006, Annie Leibovitz had Queen Letizia remove her Tiara (probably the Spanish Fleur-de-Lys Tiara) at some point, and sadly the shots with the Tiara were not released.

The queen dazzles in a stunning haute couture design created by the iconic Cristóbal Balenciaga, complemented by two iconic jewels: the rivière necklace and diamond rosette earrings.