Queen Elizabeth II launches Queen Elizabeth.

Prior to the day of the launch, a private event was hosted at the National Portrait Gallery in London, where a newly commissioned portrait of the Queen was unveiled by the artist. This was in keeping with the Cunard tradition of commissioning a piece of art, be it a sculpture or a portrait, to display on every ship named by a member of the Royal Family.

The portrait was painted by Isobel Peachey, a young, 31-year-old artist who hails from Lancashire and studied Fine Art and Photography at the Wimbledon School of Art. While Peachey was already an accomplished, award-winning artist, she had never previously been commissioned to paint a royal portrait.

Later she remarked: ‘At my interview with Cunard, I answered many questions about how I would approach an important commission – but it was only at the end of the interview that the subject was revealed as The Queen. This was both a shock and a marvelous surprise.’

The portrait itself displays The Queen in the Yellow Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace, with Her Majesty dressed in blue and wearing Queen Victoria’s collet necklace and earrings, which she also wore for her Coronation in 1953.

The Queen herself viewed the finished portrait for the first time just before naming the ship, when she also met with the artist.

Today the portrait is proudly displayed in Queen Elizabeth’s Queens Room.