Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2024.
The Royal Collection Trust has launched a new exhibition, Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography, at The King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace.
The exhibition charts the evolution of royal portrait photography from the 1920s to the present day through more than 150 items from the Royal Collection and Royal Archives. The photographs presented in the exhibition are vintage prints – the original works produced by the photographer – most of which are on display for the first time.
Alessandro Nasini, curator of Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography said, “The Royal Collection holds some of the most enduring photographs ever taken of the Royal Family, captured by the most celebrated portrait photographers of the past hundred years – from Dorothy Wilding and Cecil Beaton to Annie Leibovitz, David Bailey, and Rankin. Alongside these beautiful vintage prints, which cannot be on permanent display for conservation reasons, we are excited to share archival correspondence and never-before-seen proofs that will give visitors a behind-the-scenes insight into the process of creating such unforgettable royal portraits.”
Visitors can see the earliest surviving photographic print of a member of the Royal Family produced in colour. It shows Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester (sister-in-law to King George VI and Edward VIII) on her wedding day. The photograph was taken in 1935 by Madame Yevonde, a pioneer of colour photography and champion of women photographers.
Unreleased wartime images by Cecil Beaton are on display for the first time, demonstrating how King George VI and Queen Elizabeth used photography to project a sense of stability and hope for the nation. A photograph of the royal couple inspecting bomb damage at Buckingham Palace in 1940 shows them smiling comfortingly at each other amidst the debris, while a 1943 portrait taken at Royal Lodge in Windsor shows them gathered around the King’s desk with Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, conveying a reassuring sense of domesticity and calm.
Beaton photographed the Royal Family over the course of six decades and was chosen as the official photographer for Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation in 1953. Visitors can discover a contact sheet of proofs from the Coronation sitting, alongside a note from Martin Charteris, the Queen’s Assistant Private Secretary, recommending to Prince Philip which images should be sent as personal mementos to the Royal Family and Maids of Honour. The photograph subsequently sent to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, signed by Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and Cecil Beaton, is also on display.
Alongside portraits marking official occasions are pictures capturing more intimate family moments, including a never-before-seen image of four royal mothers – Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret, Princess Alexandra and The Duchess of Kent – holding their newborn babies. It was taken by Princess Margaret’s photographer husband Lord Snowdon as a personal token of thanks for Sir John Peel, the royal obstetrician who delivered all four babies within two months in 1964. Shown with it will be a handwritten letter from Princess Margaret to her sister, asking her ‘Darling Lilibet’ to sign a print ‘as a souvenir of an extraordinary two months of delivery’.
Photographs taken during sittings to mark royal birthdays through the decades are among the highlights of the exhibition. These include Cecil Beaton’s charming 25th-birthday portrait of Princess Margaret, dressed in an evening gown with her dog Pippin in her lap, and a previously unseen contact sheet by Norman Parkinson showing the late Queen and Princess Margaret laughing and talking together during a sitting to mark their mother’s 80th birthday.
Visitors can also discover Paolo Roversi’s memorable 40th birthday portrait of The Princess of Wales, in which Her Royal Highness’s dress and pose bear a striking visual resemblance to an 1864 portrait of Alexandra, Princess of Wales by Franz Xaver Winterhalter from the Royal Collection, which will hang nearby.
Innovations in colour and digital photography between the 1980s and 2020s revolutionised the medium, ushering in a new sense of experimentation and playfulness. Bold and colourful examples on show will include Rankin’s 2001 photograph of a smiling Queen Elizabeth II, superimposed against the Union Flag; Polly Borland’s Golden Jubilee portrait of the late Queen set against a glittering gold backdrop; and Andy Warhol’s 1985 portrait of Her late Majesty, sprinkled with diamond dust to make it sparkle in the light.
The exhibition’s free multimedia guide, narrated by Dame Joanna Lumley, features contributions from royal photographers Hugo Burnand, Rankin and John Swannell. Visitors can hear Burnand’s behind-the-scenes account of taking the official Coronation portraits of Their Majesties The King and Queen on 6 May 2023 – from cycling to and from the Palace to avoid roadblocks and getting soaked in the rain in the process, to doing dress rehearsals right up until the moment the Gold State Coach arrived back at the Palace from Westminster Abbey.
Click here to book your tickets to the exhibition.
