Portraits of the Queen to be shown as part of diamond jubilee
Almost 100 portraits of the Queen by the photographer Cecil Beaton will go on show at the Victoria & Albert Museum next year as part of the diamond jubilee celebrations.
The exhibition will provide a unique insight into the way Beaton worked with the Royal family, with pictures being shown alongside excerpts from his diaries and letters describing how he arranged sittings with the Queen.
Contact sheets showing which photographs were approved by him and which were rejected will be on display for the first time, including one dating from 1942, the first year the Queen sat for Beaton.
Over the next three decades, he photographed The Queen on many significant occasions including her Coronation Day.
According to organisers the portraits range from wartime photographs of the then Princess Elizabeth with her family, to more “tender images” of The Queen with her own young children.
The exhibition, titled Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton: A Diamond Jubilee Celebration will depict her many roles as “princess, monarch and mother”....