The anonymous Italian street artist, Blub, today paid tribute to the recently deceased Queen Elizabeth II by releasing a portrait of her on his various social media platforms. The portrait (the location of which is presently unknown) follows a number of other icons (historical and coeval) rendered by the artist in the past.

By depicting his figures underwater, Blub uses this visual trope as a metaphorical representation of the trials and tribulations of everyday life. Similar to the Latin maxim, ars longa vita brevis, Blub is perhaps inferring “that the art survives and swims on regardless of whatever happens”. Correspondingly, the same could be said of the British monarchy, an institution that has endured for approximately 1200 years.