“Using my own studies of the Renaissance by which the artist might have painted, I remade the royal portrait, substituting photography for painting. If this photograph now appears lifelike to you, you should reconsider what it means to be alive here and now.”
—Hiroshi SugimotoA standout within Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto’s expansive oeuvre, Queen Victoria (1999) explores notions of memory and historical representation through the portrayal of one of history’s significant figures. From the artist’s Portrait series, the present work is a black-and-white photograph of the wax figure of Queen Victoria in Madame Tussauds London. Employing his methodical and technically exacting photographic technique, Sugimoto transforms the wax figure into a lifelike portrait of the monarch, blurring the line between illusion and reality. The tension between the artificiality of the wax likeness and its realistic photographic depiction challenges the viewer’s perception, and invites us to reexamine our relationship with history, memory, and the representation of reality.
