PostNL unveiled five special stamps to celebrate Maxima’s 50th birthday. All the items feature the Queen at various stages of her life. One of the images is a black and white private photo made in New York in 1999, the year Willem-Alexander and Máxima met. The other four images are colour portraits made by Robin Utrecht. The stamps are interspersed with narrow lines twisted in the colors of the Dutch flag.
Maxima is a Queen Consort of the Netherlands, wife of King Willem-Alexander, daughter-in-law of ex-Queen Beatrix. She was born in Argentina and has both Spanish and Italian roots. Maxima is very popular in the Netherlands. This is largely due to the kind disposition of the queen, her willingness to help, hospitality. Maxima devotes much time to charity. She is an active patron of the Foundation for the Support of Young Artists.
Designer Maud van Rossum, who found a photo showing a beautiful profile of a Máxima when delivering a speech on TV, managed to get permission to use the picture easily: “I had no direct contact with the royal family myself, that was Post NL’s job. But it all went very smoothly”, she said. Van Rossem named the photo a ‘beautiful, intimate image’. “I don’t think any queen was ever depicted on a stamp in this way,” she continued.
See also other royal family stamps.
