Queen Elizabeth II FS. II 337A is a screenprint created by Andy Warhol in 1985 as part of his Reigning Queens series. This ambitious collection featured four reigning female monarchs of the time: Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Ntombi Twala of Swaziland, and Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. Each queen was depicted in four distinct portraits, making this Warhol’s largest portfolio in terms of individual works.

In Queen Elizabeth II 337A, Warhol casts the British monarch in a palette that exudes both elegance and authority. The background transitions from a bold royal blue to soft white, drawing attention to the Queen’s white dress and luminous complexion. Warhol’s use of silkscreen—a method he favored for its capacity for reproduction and precise layering—allowed him to overlay vibrant color blocks with sharp, expressive outlines. Here, red contouring highlights the Queen’s hair, crown, and facial features, pulling the viewer’s focus toward her poised, commanding gaze.

While Warhol’s work often explored celebrity and mass culture, the Reigning Queens series marked a shift toward portraying institutional power. Fascinated by female icons, Warhol had long immortalized women like Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, capturing their public personas through repetition and artifice. But with this series, he turned to monarchs who inherited their power by birthright, rather than by association or marriage—aligning with his enduring interest in powerful feminine identities.

Warhol expressed ambivalence about exhibiting the Reigning Queens in the United States, writing in his diary:

“I had my opening at Leo Castelli’s to go to, of the Reigning Queens portfolio that I just hate George Mulder for showing here in America. \[It was] supposed to be only for Europe—nobody here cares about royalty and it’ll be another bad review.”

Despite his reservations, the series would go on to be celebrated internationally. In 2012, to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, the Royal Collection acquired a complete set of Warhol’s portraits of the Queen—making them the only images in the Collection for which Her Majesty did not personally sit. The source image Warhol used was an official state photograph taken by Peter Grugeon at Windsor Castle in 1975, originally released to commemorate the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977.

Warhol’s decision to base the portraits on official, widely circulated imagery underscores his interest in mass media and image repetition. Just as he had recontextualized celebrity photographs in his earlier work, Warhol elevated royal iconography into the realm of Pop Art—merging state symbolism with commercial aesthetics.

Queen Elizabeth II 337A is a powerful example of Warhol’s late-career technical mastery. By the mid-1980s, his silkscreen technique had evolved into a highly refined practice, capable of achieving intricate detail and bold, sophisticated design. The portrait is more than a depiction of royalty—it’s a meditation on fame, femininity, and the ways in which images become embedded in public consciousness.

In many ways, the series fulfilled Warhol’s own artistic ambition. As he once famously declared:

“I want to be as famous as the Queen of England.”

With Reigning Queens, Warhol didn’t just immortalize royalty—he positioned himself alongside it.