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Photograph

1939 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Beaton, Cecil (Sir) (photographer)
Place of origin
Buckingham Palace (photographed)

Royal Portrait by Cecil Beaton (1904-1980). Photograph depciting Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (when queen consort) standing in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, 1939. She is seen full length, her face in profile. She is standing and holds an open parasol. Sunlight from behind her illuminates the parasol as well as the hat, and skirt of the gown she wears. In the background of the image, a broad stretch of grass and trees.

Object details

Categories
Photographs
Portraits
Royalty
Object type
Photograph
Materials and techniques
photography
Paper
Gelatin Silver Process
Photography
Brief description
Royal Portrait by Cecil Beaton (1904-1980). Photograph depicting Queen Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother) in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, 1939. She is standing and holds a parasol.
Physical description
Royal Portrait by Cecil Beaton (1904-1980). Photograph depciting Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (when queen consort) standing in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, 1939. She is seen full length, her face in profile. She is standing and holds an open parasol. Sunlight from behind her illuminates the parasol as well as the hat, and skirt of the gown she wears. In the background of the image, a broad stretch of grass and trees.
Dimensions
  • Image width: 19.6cm
  • Image height: 24.6cm
  • Paper width: 20.1cm
  • Paper height: 25cm
Marks and inscriptions
'Early photograph of / Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. / Taken in the garden at Buckingham Palace.' (Written in blue ink on reverse.)
Gallery label
(2012)
Queen Elizabeth, Buckingham Palace Garden
1939

Beaton struck up an instant rapport with the Queen. His diary reveals that she was an active participant in the staging of her portraits, suggesting suitable dresses and accessories. Here, Beaton combined a painterly eye with the sparkling and elegant style of his Vogue fashion studies. Like those, each royal portrait would be carefully retouched under Beaton’s instruction, to define facial features and trim silhouettes.

Gelatin silver print
V&A: E.1374-2010
Credit line
Bequeathed to the Museum in 1987 by Eileen Hose, secretary to the photographer
Production
Cecil Beaton photographed members of the royal family from 1930-1979.
Subject depicted
Elizabeth (Queen of Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Dominions Beyond the Seas, Sometime Empress of India, Consort of George VI. the Queen Mother)
Place depicted
Buckingham Palace
Associated object
E.1747-1987
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.1374-2010

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Record createdNovember 23, 2010
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1175736/photograph-beaton-cecil-sir/
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