Leaning with one arm up against the wall as he gazes across at his little sister, an eight-year-old Prince Charles looks every inch the doting older brother in a never-before-seen royal portrait.
The striking image, taken in 1956 by photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, who later married Princess Margaret to become the Earl of Snowdon, is one of more than 150 items going on display in the King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace in a new exhibition opening in May.
Royal Portraits: A Century of Photographs will give the public a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of the most iconic portraits taken of the royal family.
It will also feature several previously unseen images, including the tender moment captured between the now King and Princess Royal, which was taken in Buckingham Palace’s Picture Gallery as part of a commission to mark Charles’s eighth birthday.
“I think it would have been a fun sitting for the children,” exhibition curator Alessandro Nasini tells hello! in our exclusive interview. “It is always exciting to share this kind of material with visitors. I love how the young photographer, then only 26, plays with the children and their reflections in the mirrored doors.”
Celebrating a century of royal portraiture, the exhibition will reveal the stories behind beautiful images marking state occasions and family moments alike, captured by renowned photographers such as Cecil Beaton and Dorothy Wilding, as well as the future Lord Snowdon.
POWER OF PHOTOGRAPHY
It has been three years in the making, with the curator trawling the rich royal archives for images.
“I was quite spoilt for choice in the sense that the Royal Collection holds such a wealth of portrait photography,” says Alessandro.
“I think the royal family over the past century have understood the importance of photography and how its immediacy could speak to everyone, anywhere they may be in the world.
“Nothing is there by chance – the choice of background, pose, items of dress, camera angle and so on are all part of the creative process, which is often a collaboration between sitter and photographer.”
As well as black-and-white images, there’s a splash of US pop artist Andy Warhol’s trademark colour with a vibrant print from his 1985 series Reigning Queens.
Produced using an official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, taken ten years previously for the Silve
