LONDON: Six months after the death of Elizabeth II, an exhibition dedicated to the king’s corgi opened in London on Wednesday, featuring photos of the Queen with her beloved dogs.

The exhibition in the Wallace Collection, entitled ‘The Queen and Her Corgis’, features nine photographs taken throughout Elizabeth II’s life, each capturing a different time period and her unique bond with her animals.

“This is a very small but absolutely magnificent exhibition showing nine photographs of the Queen and her corgi and tracking her life every ten years,” exhibit curator Xavier Bray enthusiastically stated.

A small dog with pointed ears and a long back can not be separated from the image of Elizabeth II. The queen raised about thirty of them through the generations, with a preference for the Pembroke breed, but also created the “dorgi”, a cross between a corgi and a dachshund.

The photographs, selected from more than 5,000 images, range from informal photographs to more arranged portraits. The oldest image in the collection is from July 1936 and shows 10-year-old Princess Elizabeth playing with her two corgis, Jane and Dookie, in London.

“You see the Queen, but from a very different light, through the incredible relationship she has with her corgi,” said Bray.

One of the images on display was taken on September 19, 2022. On the steps of Windsor Castle, Muick and Sandy waited, escorted by two guards, as the funeral procession departed from London after the king’s grand funeral to climb the Long Walk (“The Long Way”) to the castle, where Elizabeth II was buried privately.

Forever associated with the queen, the two corgis were adopted by Andrew, the youngest son of the sultan who died on September 8 at the age of 96.