For centuries, portraiture has played a vital role in shaping the public perception of royalty. This same Tuesday, May 14, King Charles III of England unveiled the first official portrait of him since his coronation, a work by portraitist Jonathan Yeo. But in the last 100 years, no artistic medium has had a greater impact on the real image than photography. That is the message that the exhibition wants to convey. Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography, which will chart the evolution of royal portrait photography in the British monarchy from the 1920s to the present day, bringing together more than 150 photographic prints, evidence and documents from the Royal Collection and the Royal Archives. The photographs presented in the exhibition are vintage prints, that is, the original works produced by the photographer, most of which have never been exhibited to the public until now.
Photos that demonstrate how the royal family has harnessed the power of photography to project both the grandeur and tradition of the monarchy and, at times, an unprecedented sense of intimacy and closeness. The exhibition, which can be seen from this Friday, May 17 until next October 6 at the King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace, London, examines the changing state of photography as an art form and reviews the cultural, artistic and technological changes who influenced the work of the most famous royal photographers, from Cecil Beaton and Dorothy Wilding to Rankin and Annie Leibovitz – who this year also immortalized Kings Felipe and Letizia in portraits that have not yet seen the light of day.
Archival documents and unpublished evidence shed light on the behind-the-scenes process of commissioning, selecting and retouching such portraits. It includes everything from photographers’ handwritten notes to never-before-seen correspondence between members of the British royal family and their staff, with materials that reveal the stories behind some of the most iconic images taken of members of the Windsors.
The exhibition opens in the 1920s and 1930s, during the reign of George VI, father of the late Elizabeth II and grandfather of the current monarch. It was the golden age of the society photographer. Post-war prosperity and technological advances led to a boom in photographic studios, and members of European royal families were among the “bright young men” eager to be captured on camera. It should also be noted that many of the new studies were operated by women. Photographers such as Dorothy Wilding and Madame Yevonde, for example, were among those who experimented with a bolder, more modern aesthetic.
In the mid-20th century, however, with Elizabeth II already crowned, no photographer had a greater impact on shaping the public image of the monarchy than Cecil Beaton. The exhibition features some of his most memorable photographs, taken over six decades. Among them is the famous 1939 photo session of Queen Elizabeth, better known as the Queen Mother, in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, dressed in her “white wardrobe” by Norman Hartnell. Also on display are Beaton’s original portraits of the coronation of Elizabeth II, arguably the most prestigious commission of the 20th century.
The close relationship between the real models and the photographers develops throughout the exhibition, but is most clearly seen through the lens of Lord Snowdon (formerly known as Antony Armstrong-Jones). He was one of the most sought-after photographers of the 1950s for employing an unpretentious style that soon attracted the attention of the royal family, especially one member in particular: Princess Margaret. He himself would end up a royal when he married her on May 6, 1960. His remarkably intimate portraits of the princess, taken both before and during their marriage, hint at the depth of trust and collaboration between them ― although they ended up divorcing in 1978.
The final room of the exhibition explores the innovations in digital and color photography that revolutionized the medium between the 1980s and the 2020s, with Elizabeth II still at the head of the British monarchy. During this period, photography came to be recognized as an art form in its own right, and the perception of the role of the photographer changed from image-making craftsman to celebrated artist. From Andy Warhol’s silkscreen of Elizabeth II sprinkled with diamond dust to famous photographs by Rankin, David Bailey, Nick Knight, Hugo Burnand and Annie Leibovitz, among others, the bold and colorful works in this room demonstrate the extraordinary variety, power and sometimes the joy of royal portrait photography from the past four decades.
“This is the Royal Collection’s first exhibition dedicated entirely to modern portrait photography, an artistic medium that has helped shape the way the world views the British monarchy,” said exhibition curator Alessandro Nasini. . “We are excited for visitors to discover the beauty and materiality of these original prints, many of which are on display for the first time, and we hope they will also enjoy a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process behind some of these iconic life-like images. ”, he confides.
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