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Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case X, Shelf 914, Box C

Photograph

1945 (Photographed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

One of twenty-two contact print photographs; which has been cut out, arranged and mounted on card. Depicting Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) Buckingham Palace, 1945. Standing, three-quarter length. She is wearing a formal skirt and matching top, with short sleeves, pleats at the shoulders and a bow at the waist. The princess also wears a double-string pearl necklace. Her face is seen in profile, to right. Her hands are held together at her waist. A backdrop depicts an enlarged and adapted section of an unidentified winter scene; which Beaton reported in his diary as being a work by the British painter Reginald John [Rex] Whistler (1905-1944).


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
photography
Brief description
Royal Portrait by Cecil Beaton (1904-1980). One of twenty-two contact print photographs; which has been cut out, arranged and mounted on card. Depicting Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) Buckingham Palace, 1945.
Physical description
One of twenty-two contact print photographs; which has been cut out, arranged and mounted on card. Depicting Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) Buckingham Palace, 1945. Standing, three-quarter length. She is wearing a formal skirt and matching top, with short sleeves, pleats at the shoulders and a bow at the waist. The princess also wears a double-string pearl necklace. Her face is seen in profile, to right. Her hands are held together at her waist. A backdrop depicts an enlarged and adapted section of an unidentified winter scene; which Beaton reported in his diary as being a work by the British painter Reginald John [Rex] Whistler (1905-1944).
Dimensions
  • Image width: 4.9cm
  • Image height: 7.2cm
  • Paper width: 32.5cm
  • Paper height: 34.3cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'B.301-51' (Written in blue fountain pen beneath the image.)
  • 'Approved Photographs. Series 292 / Series B.301' (Written in capital letters, positioned in the lower left hand corner of the card.)
Gallery label
Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, Buckingham Palace March 1945 After each royal sitting, Beaton would send a selection of the best photographs to the Palace for official approval before publication. Small prints of the approved photographs would be mounted on card, together with their negative numbers, to facilitate future print orders. The worn-out nature of this card indicates how frequently it must have been referred to by Beaton and his assistants. Gelatin silver contact prints mounted on card V&A: Ph.595 A-V-1987 (2012)
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
Place depicted
Associated object
Bibliographic reference
Strong, Roy C. Cecil Beaton: the royal portraits. London: Thames and Hudson, c1988. p. 20
Other number
B.301-52 - Beaton's number
Collection
Accession number
PH.595O-1987

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Record createdJune 8, 2009
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