The Queen at Breakfast was painted by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1965. The oil painting will be included in the book, The Royal Portrait: Image and Impact. (Royal Collection/Associated Press)

A never-before-seen portrait of Queen Elizabeth has been unveiled and to the surprise of some, the artist behind the impressionistic painting is her husband, Prince Philip.

The Queen at Breakfast features the monarch seated at a dining table in Windsor Castle reading a newspaper with a bread loaf and jam jar in front of her. There also appears to be a wireless radio sitting on the white tablecloth.

On the walls are large paintings by artist George Stubbs.

Created in 1965, the work shows some skill by the Duke of Edinburgh, who kept it in his private collection. The 89-year-old is a well-known art collector and amateur painter but his works have never been publicly shown.

The oil painting will appear along with many other images in The Royal Portrait: Image and Impact, due to be released on Monday. A photo of Prince Philip's painting was released Saturday by The Royal Collection.

"I think it's a really good painting, it's a got a real quality to it — it seems such a private moment, the Queen sitting having her breakfast, she could be anybody," the book's author Jennifer Scott, assistant curator of paintings at the Royal Collection, told The Mail newspaper.

Other works in the book include one by New Guinean artist Mathias Kauage called Missis Kwin in which the Queen is reimagined as a tribal chief, with face paint, feathers, tattoos and animal ornaments.

There's also an 1852 photograph of Queen Victoria, surrounded by her children, but her face is smudged out. It's reported she was not happy with the photo because her eyes were closed so she rubbed out her face on the daguerreotype with her finger.