In 1956, there was a lot of fuss and anticipation about the first visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Nigeria, as it had been a few years since the late queen ascended the throne, and her visit to the country of Nigeria in West Africa, and before her arrival, the famous Nigerian artist Ben Inounu received, A royal commissioned to commemorate her visit by sculpting a statue, making him the first African artist to make an official portrait of a member of the British royal family, according to Al Arabiya newspaper.

Inono began work on the sculpture the following year, during which he visited Buckingham Palace in London several times for sessions with the Queen..

The management of the Royal Collection, which oversees the art collection of the British royal family, noted that in 1957, Queen Elizabeth II sat down with Inono for a large bronze sculpture.

Queen Elizabeth has sat for the Inono sculpture 12 times, including 8 at Buckingham Palace, according to the Ben Inonu Foundation website, and the rest of the sessions were organized in a private studio belonging to Sir William Red Dick, an Inono Fellow at the Royal Society of British Artists..

During this time, Inono finished sculpting a bust of the queen and a schematic model of the sculpture, according to the foundation, and Inono completed the sculpture in 1957, which had raised some eyebrows at the time for her portrayal of the queen with plump lips..

His son, Oliver, explained that Ben Inono’s distinctive style is to give his characters an African character. CNNthat some of the enthusiastic criticism received by his father, represented by the embodiment of the queen through his African eyes, as he added African features to the sculpture, which distinguishes his sculpture work.

Queen Elizabeth statue

Oliver said, toCNN In describing the Queen’s sculpture as one of his father’s greatest works, my father was very proud of it, as it was one of his masterpieces that demonstrated his prowess as an artist.“.

Oliver, who is also an artist like his father, added: “At the time, Inono’s work on a sculpture of the queen was important because he was an African artist, but he was the most popular in the Commonwealth of Nations at the time, so it was very easy to put him in charge.”

While the sculpture later remained in Nigeria, the bust was acquired by Queen Elizabeth, and according to the management of the royal collection, she had another sculpture from Inono in addition to a number of his paintings..

Later, a bronze sculpture of the Queen was displayed in the Nigerian Parliament building before preparations for the country’s independence from Britain in 1960.

Queen Elizabeth statue sculpture

Inowono became known as one of Africa’s greatest modernists, and he painted a portrait of Nigerian Princess Aditoto Ademeloy nicknamed “Tutu”, dubbed the “African Mona Lisa”, for more than $1.6 million at a London auction in 2018.

Born in 1917, Inono has been described as the most influential African artist of the 20th century..

Inono became a notable artist even before his royal commissioning and in 1954 he was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire by the Queen for his services to the field of art. He died in 1994 at the age of 77.