Creator(s)
Cecil Beaton (1904-80) (photographer)
24.3 x 19.4 cm (image)
From the Collection of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
- Places
- Europe
- Great Britain
- England
- Greater London [England]
- London [Greater London]
- City of Westminster [London]
- Buckingham Palace
- Buckingham Palace Gardens
- Buckingham Palace
- City of Westminster [London]
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- Greater London [England]
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Beaton’s first commission to photograph the Queen Mother was at Buckingham Palace on 28 July 1939. Although meant to last for 20 minutes, the sitting continued for over five hours and moved from the State Rooms to the gardens.The queen wears one of the gowns Norman Hartnell designed for the State Visit to France in 1938, known as the ‘White Wardrobe’, which became a fashion sensation, and is employed here by Beaton to realise his romantic vision of idealised pastoral scenes.
Sitter and photographer formed a harmonious rapport that would last for decades. Some of the garden photographs were shot in backlight and Beaton recalled the queen quipping: ‘How the King will laugh when I tell him you photographed me directly against the sun. We have to spend our time running round to face the sun for the King’s snapshots.’