A couple of days ago we witnessed an historic event: Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands abdicated from the throne to be immediately succeeded by her son, Prince Willem-Alexander van Oranje. By signing the act of succession, queen Beatrix became a Princess again. It’s all pretty medieval stuff and opinions vary about the sense and nonsense of a monarchy in modern times. For those who are not familiar with the system of a parliamentary Monarchy (as it exists in a number of european countries): the head of state has more of a symbolic function and stands for stability and unity of the people. Strange as it may seem, in some countries this system seems to function well, and the people of those countries wouldn’t want it in any other way. Holland is one of those countries where a vast majority of the people support the monarchy.

But what with the royals themselves? From birth they are being dropped into a system, where they are constantly in the public eye, with people expecting them to be perfect in every way etc, etc, etc… Do they ever question themselves? How do they handle the pressure? What is life like, when everything you do needs the aprovel of the elected government?

After a lifetime of service, of constant traveling and meeting the high and mighty of this wold, Princess Beatrix will now be devoting a vast majority of her time to just being a full-time grandmother to her grandchildren. With this sketch i wanted to be among the first to make a portrait of „Granny” Beatrix.

Sketch made on the Wacom tablet, using a texturised background.