Photograph
1939 (photographed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Photograph depicting Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Seated, full-length, wearing a gown embroidered with sequins and a diamond tiara. Her face is seen in profile, looking downwards to the left. She holds a partly-opened fan and in her hands. Flowers surround the chair; hydrangeas, carnations, and gladioli. A gilt and upholstered foot-stool is just seen at the base of the image, beneath folds of the dress. A backdrop depicts an enlarged and adapted section of 'The Swing' by the French painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806).
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | photography |
| Brief description | Royal Portrait by Cecil Beaton (1904-1980). Photograph depciting Queen Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother), Buckingham Palace, 1939. |
| Physical description | Photograph depicting Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Seated, full-length, wearing a gown embroidered with sequins and a diamond tiara. Her face is seen in profile, looking downwards to the left. She holds a partly-opened fan and in her hands. Flowers surround the chair; hydrangeas, carnations, and gladioli. A gilt and upholstered foot-stool is just seen at the base of the image, beneath folds of the dress. A backdrop depicts an enlarged and adapted section of 'The Swing' by the French painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806). |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | 'A delightful study of Her Majesty The queen posed against a floral background of hydrangeas, lilies and roses, by Mr. Cecil Beaton.' (These words have been typed using a type-writer onto a slip of paper, and glued to the reverse of the photograph.) |
| Gallery label | Queen Elizabeth, Buckingham Palace
1939
Beaton’s first photographs of the Queen consciously evoked painted portraiture, in particular the romantic royal portraits by Thomas Gainsborough (1727–88) and Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805–73). The fairytale effect is heightened by cascading arrangements of flowers and a backdrop based on a famous Rococo painting, The Swing (1767), by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Here, the Queen wears a silk tulle crinoline by royal couturier Norman Hartnell (1901–79), who revived the crinoline when he designed the Queen’s wardrobe for the State Visit to Paris in 1938.
Gelatin silver print
V&A: Ph.964-1987
(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 objects | |
| Bibliographic reference | Strong, Roy C. Cecil Beaton: the royal portraits. London: Thames and Hudson, c1988. p. 64-5 |
| Other number | N.S. 11 - Beaton's number |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | PH.964-1987 |
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| Record created | August 2, 2010 |
| Record URL |
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