Pics: London Exhibit Shows Portraits Of British Royals From Last 100 Years

From Andy Warhol's colourful depiction of Queen Elizabeth II to Cecil Beaton's pictures of her sister Princess Margaret, a new exhibition looks at portrait photography of Britain's royal family over the last 100 years.

"Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography", which opens at The King's Gallery in Buckingham Palace on Friday, features more than 150 photographic prints, proofs and documents from the Royal Collection and the Royal Archives, some of them never released or seen before in public.

Employees from Royal Collection Trust, Catriona and Meredith pose as they view ‘Coronation Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II' by Cecil Beaton in 1953. Photo Credit: Reuters

"This exhibition charts the evolution of royal portraits photography over the past century, so from... the high society glamour of the 1920s all the way to the coronation of King Charles III in 2023," Allesandro Nasini, senior curator of photographs at the Royal Collection Trust and exhibition curator, told Reuters.

The exhibition begins with a 1923 engagement portrait of Prince Albert and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, who later became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, which hangs close to the 2023 official coronation portrait of King Charles.

Royal Collection Trust employees pose as they view ‘King Charles III when the Prince of Wales' by Nadav Kander in 2013. Photo Credit: Reuters

"(They are) exactly 100 years apart. We have analogue technology one side, digital technology (on the other), monochrome, colour and a private commission and the official. I think gives the range... of the exhibition which goes from the very private to the very public, the official."

Among highlights is a colourful 1985 screenprint of Elizabeth II, who died in 2022, by Warhol, based on a portrait of the monarch and features "diamond dust", or fine particles of crushed glass.

‘Reigning Queens (Royal Edition): Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom' by Andy Warhol in 1985. Photo Credit: Reuters

There are wartime images of the royal family, including some by society photographer Beaton who took many portraits of the royal family over several decades.

A 40th-birthday portrait of Prince William's wife Kate, the Princess of Wales, hangs near a painting that inspired it: that of a previous Princess of Wales, Alexandra of Denmark.

‘Princess Margaret' by Lord Snowdon in 1967. Photo Credit: Reuters

The exhibition also features pictures of the royals by famous photographers including Annie Leibovitz, David Bailey and Rankin.

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