Queen's robes portrait unveiled

Artist Jeff Stultiens met the Queen when he was eight

A new portrait of the Queen in garter robes to celebrate her 50th anniversary has been painted by an artist who saw her soon after her coronation.

Painter Jeff Stultiens said: "At the age of eight, I stood in a line of schoolchildren as the newly-crowned Queen passed by in her limousine.

"Fifty years later, on the eve of the anniversary of the Coronation, I have been given the opportunity to meet the monarch and to make a pictorial testament," he said.

The 40-inch by 32-inch portrait has been commissioned by Oriel College, Oxford.

Stultiens is a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

The Queen had sittings for the painting in February and March.

It has been commissioned by Oriel because the college was founded only a few years before the Order of the Garters, Stultiens said.

The portrait will be unveiled at the college in September.