Time honours Queen Elizabeth II with commemorative cover featuring portrait of monarch aged 42

Queen Elizabeth II has died aged 96

Time magazine has unveiled its commemorative cover honouring the life and legacy of Queen Elizabeth II.

The outlet shared a photo of its new cover on social media on Thursday, shortly after it was announced that the monarch had died at the age of 96.

The cover features a photo of the Queen, the longest-reigning British monarch, taken by royal photographer Cecil Beaton in 1968. The only text on the cover is placed to the left of the Queen, and reads: “The Queen. Elizabeth II 1926-2022.”

In the photo, the monarch wears the Admiral’s Boat Cloak, a black cloak adorned only with gold buttons, which she paired with a pair of simple earrings. She is pictured looking off to the side and smiling slightly against a pale blue backdrop.

According to the Victoria and Albert Museum, the photo was taken by Beaton in the summer of 1968 in anticipation of his upcoming exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. The queen was 42 at the time.

Prior to the sitting, Beaton’s diary entry showed that he was nervous about the opportunity, as he noted that his and the royal’s tastes were “so different”.

“The difficulties are great. Our points of view, our tastes are so different. The result is a compromise between two people and the fates play a large part,” he wrote, according to the museum.

As for why the royal photographer chose to shoot the Queen against the simple backdrop, he said he wanted the portraits to be “stark and clear and bold”. The photos were the last portraits that Beaton made of Queen Elizabeth II.

While the photo chosen by Time marks the last time the Queen sat for a portrait for Beaton, it was far from the first, as the monarch was still a princess when the photographer first captured her picture in 1942.

Time magazine honours Queen Elizabeth II with commemorative cover (Time magazine)

During her reign, Beaton captured the Queen’s photo on a number of notable occasions, including her Coronation Day in 1953, and for the births of all four of her children.