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British RoyalsQueen Elizabeth II

Stained-glass window of Her Majesty to be designed by David Hockney for Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey announced on Tuesday, 22 November that influential contemporary painter David Hockney has accepted an invitation to design a stained-glass window at the Abbey to honour Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Though the Abbey will provide input, Mr Hockney will have artistic control over the design and in a statement posted on the Westminster Abbey website alongside the announcement, said ‘I have planned a landscape full of blossom that’s a celebration every year’.

This will be the second time that Mr Hockney has been asked to create a tribute piece for The Queen though he had to turn the previous invitation in 2011 down because ‘I was very busy painting England actually…Her country’.

Expected to be completed in mid-2018, ‘The Queen’s Window’ will celebrate Her Majesty’s reign which has spanned enormous social change and has been marked by The Queen’s profound sense of duty. The window will be found in the north transept of the Abbey and will be revealed at the same time as the unveiling of a new museum at the Abbey – the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries.

Of the project the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall said, ‘I am delighted to announce our intention to celebrate Her Majesty’s reign with a stained glass window on the west side of the North Transept and that David Hockney has agreed to design the window to be made by the Barley Studio in York. It will be wonderful to have in the Abbey the work of this internationally renowned contemporary British artist who has been honoured by The Queen with membership of the Order of Merit, which is in Her Majesty’s personal gift.’

As the longest-reigning British monarch Queen Elizabeth II has a long history with Westminster Abbey which saw her wedding to HRH The Duke of Edinburgh in November 1947 and her coronation as Queen of the United Kingdom in June 1953.