Wearing her trademark sunny smile and a colourful pink dress, the Queen's warmth undoubtedly shines through in a new photo that has been released by Buckingham Palace. The picture was taken to celebrate a momentous occasion in national history when, on Wednesday 9 September, the Queen officially became the longest-reigning British monarch.
She broke the record set by her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria, who reigned for 63 years, seven months and two days.
The new portrait, which was taken in July, shows Queen Elizabeth II going about her daily routine.
© Photo: PAThe Queen has become the longest-reigning British monarch, breaking the record set by her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria
The 89-year-old royal is pictured sitting at her desk in her private audience room at Buckingham Palace, in front of one of her official red boxes.
She has received one almost every day of her reign and each box contains important papers from government ministers in the UK and her Realms, and from her representatives across the Commonwealth and beyond.
With a document in hand and holding on to her spectacles, the Queen is captured from the side on. The mum-of-four chose to wear a pink, floral patterned dress for the photocall, as well as her trademark pearl earrings and matching pearl necklace.
© Photo: Getty ImagesHer Majesty was crowned on 2 June 1953 at Westminster Abbey
The picture was taken by Mary McCartney, a renowned photographer and cookery writer and the eldest biological child of Paul McCartney and photographer Linda Eastman McCartney.
This is not the only portrait that royal fans have been treated with.
A series of photographic displays entitled "Long To Reign Over Us" will open at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, and will showcase official portraits and pictures of Her Majesty undertaking royal visits, as well as images of informal family moments. The selection of images will run from 1952 until the present day.
© Photo: Getty ImagesThe Queen will mark the day with her husband Prince Philip, attending an engagement in Scotland
Despite her unquestionable historic achievement, the 89-year-old Queen has requested no celebrations on 9 September. She is said to hope that, if the occasion is marked at all, it is done so with reverence, with no sense of triumphalism and no suggestion that what is being celebrated is Victoria's death.
Instead, the Queen will spend the day travelling by steam train from Edinburgh to Tweedbank to formally open the new Borders Railway – the UK's biggest new domestic railway for more than a decade - with her husband Prince Philip by her side.
Following the engagement, she will return to Balmoral – the castle built for Queen Victoria by Prince Albert – just as Victoria did on the day she passed her grandfather George III's record.
