Don Felipe leans on one of the tables in the Gasparini room of the Royal Palace. He wears the uniform of Captain General of the Army. Behind him, classic elements of the royal portrait: the table, an open door with curtains behind, a chandelier, and a clock, symbolizing the passage of time and that the Head of State is the mechanism on which the country operates. Next to him, Doña Letizia, with jewelry, a black dress, and a fuchsia cape, looks at the camera in the same room, but brighter.
This is the composition that the photographer Annie Leibovitz devised to immortalize the King and Queen in snapshots that as of this Tuesday become part of the official portrait gallery of the Bank of Spain. An institution that since its foundation in 1782 as the Bank of San Carlos has immortalized all Heads of State and their governors. This time, with the novelty that Don Felipe and Doña Letizia have been portrayed by a photographer, and not by a painter. The chosen one has been the renowned American, author of snapshots of other kings, such as Queen Elizabeth II of England, and awarded in Spain by the Princess of Asturias Foundation in 2013.
According to the Bank of Spain, for the portrait of the King and Queen, they were looking for a foreign woman, with the aim of internationalizing the portrait collection. This, combined with the relationship that Annie Leibovitz has maintained with the Royal Family since 2013, led to her name being chosen to carry out images that are now part of the Bank's collection and Spain's legacy.
But to reach the inauguration of this November 26, we must go back two years. It was in October 2022 when the Bank began the process to immortalize the Head of State and his wife. They also wanted to replace the painting with a photograph for the first time. They then contacted Leibovitz's studio, knowing that since winning the Princess of Asturias Award, the photographer had expressed her desire to portray Don Felipe and Doña Letizia.
The Royal Palace's team had the responsibility of finding the appropriate clothing.
As explained by Yolanda Romero, curator of the Bank of Spain's collection and responsible for the presentation to the media, the King brought his Army Captain General uniform to the photo session with his decorations and the Carlos III sash, as well as a morning coat and a tailcoat. On the other hand, Queen Doña Letizia's stylist, Eva Fernández, spent weeks searching for a suitable dress for the occasion.
Leibovitz requested that Doña Letizia choose a dress she had not worn before. Instead of debuting a custom-made Haute Couture piece, Fernández delved into the archives of private collectors with one thing in mind: they wanted a dress by Cristóbal Balenciaga, the most universal representative of Spanish haute couture. They found it at the Antoni de Montpalau Foundation. A black strapless dress, complemented by a fuchsia cape designed by the same master.
A member of Leibovitz's team traveled to Spain to locate possible spaces for the photographs. They looked at several rooms in the Royal Palace, also outside the emblematic palace. They also searched at the Bank of Spain, and after considering all options, Leibovitz chose the Gasparini room as the suitable place for the photos.
This chamber, known for its Rococo style, was where King Carlos III dressed and received the most private visitors. The room also houses one of the most special clocks in the National Heritage collection. It is El Pastor, a Luis XI-style clock with a single 1752 mechanism. A clock of significant historical value that never leaves the Royal Palace due to the delicacy of its parts.
This sophisticated machine is part of the composition that Leibovitz chose to place the King. As Romero explained, the photo session began with Doña Letizia in the pose that was ultimately chosen. The Queen, with the dress, the cape, loose hair, and three pieces of jewelry. Around her neck, the chaton necklace, and matching earrings. These pieces are part of the jewelry set that Victoria Eugenia reserved for the Queens of Spain. On her left hand's index finger, the eternity ring given to her by her daughters, which she never takes off.
Next, Leibovitz asked Doña Letizia to put on a tiara and the Carlos III sash. While the Queen's team styled her for this new option, the photographer began with Felipe VI. She took photos of the King in a tailcoat, a morning coat, and the Army Captain General uniform. The same one from his wedding and with the Grand Cross sash of the Order of Carlos III, as well as the highest decorations of the three armies: Grand Cross of Military Merit, Naval Merit, and Aeronautical Merit.
The session, which lasted for five hours, was attended by the King and Queen, a small team from the Royal Palace, and five members from Leibovitz's office in New York. There was a brief break for lunch, and after the session, the photographer and her team returned to New York, where the meticulous editing took place, including choosing the frame that frames the two images, conceived as a diptych.
Annie Leibovitz requested 137,000 euros for the photographs of the King and Queen, in addition to another 97,000 for the portrait of Hernández de Cos. The cost of both photo sessions was covered by the Bank of Spain.
The photographer had never faced such a large size before; the two snapshots are 2.2 meters high by 170 wide, vertical. "They are very pictorial portraits in which we find allusions to Velázquez, the court portraitist," explained Yolanda Romero. The Spanish painter was able to create the illusion for the viewer to enter the scene, "a fact that also appears in Leibovitz's images, which is what first strikes about the royal photographs." For Romero, "Leibovitz has managed to capture the tradition of Spanish institutional portraiture."