It is a royal accolade usually awarded to the art world’s very biggest names.
But young Scots painter Nicole Porter has joined their ranks after her portrait of The Queen was snapped up for the Monarch’s personal collection.
Miss Porter, 27, from Aberdeen, has told how a mystery collector wandered into her gallery, looked at the painting and said, “They Queen should see that.”
Accepting this advice, the young artist sent him a photograph of the portrait.
She was stunned when she received a letter a few weeks later accepting it into the Royal Collection, meaning that her painting will hang alongside masterpieces by the likes of Rembrandt, Rubens and Leonardo da Vinci.
Miss Porter, who spent seven months working on the piece before displaying it in her gallery, was ‘thrilled’ by the honour.
She said: “It’s quite overwhelming. When I got that letter, I just couldn’t believe it.
“It’s an honour to have the Queen say that she likes it and wants it in the collection – a real honour.
“I don’t think I’ll actually get to meet the Queen herself but the experience will be amazing. I’ve always wanted to do a painting of The Queen, as she is the highest figurehead of society.
“Her Majesty, to me, is the ultimate subject matter, so I just felt that I really wanted to paint her.
“I felt there was a side of her that hadn’t been captured and I wanted to do that. It’s the first painting I’ve done of her and it’s a great honour to have it accepted into the Royal Collection.”
The collection, one of the world’s biggest, hosts more than a million objects from all aspects of fine and decorative arts.
Miss Porter, who earned a first class honours degree from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee, has worked and studied in Norway, Paris and New York.
She said: “I took a photo of The Queen at Braemar Gathering in September last year and I worked on the painting from that image. I wanted to portray her in a softer way, as a grandmother rather than the usual austere exterior.
“It seems appropriate because she seems happy when she is up here in Scotland.”
The portrait shows the Queen, who turned 88 on Monday, wearing a pink dress, coat and hat, and a pearl necklace.
Miss Porter declined to comment on whether the Royal Collection paid for the portrait.
Paintings commissioned from the artist cost a minimum of £1,000.