Fab Photos of Queen Elizabeth II at the V and A

Kristine and Victoria are sad to report that we will miss the V and A Museum's exhibit of Cecil Beaton's photographs of Queen Elizabeth II, which is scheduled to close in London on April 22, 2012.  We will share  little of it with you today, and here is the website.  Below is the schedule for additional presentations of the exhibit in the UK, Canada, and Australia.

Beaton's talents for portrait photography were unrivaled, and he exercised them fully when the subject was the Queen.


Curtis Moffat, 'Cecil Beaton'  about 1925
Gelatin silver print; Museum no. E.1556-2007

Sir Cecil W. H. Beaton (1904-1980) created hundreds of iconic portraits of celebrities ad designed sets and costumes for theatre and film.  As a photographer for Vogue magazine, he lived what he saw, and was named to Hall of Fame of the Best Dressed List.  Among his best known work


Princess Elizabeth by Cecil Beaton, March 1945 Museum no. PH.1746-1987


Princess Elizabeth and Prince Charles, Gelatin silver print, December 1948, Buckingham PalaceMuseum no. PH.218-1987

Beaton photographed Queen Elizabeth before she came to the throne in 1952, and he took her official Coronation portrait.



Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton, 2 June 1953Museum no. PH.311-1987


Beaton was renowned for his romantic portraits of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.


Queen Elizabeth, Buckingham Palace Garden, 1939Gelatin silver print Museum no. E.1374-2010



Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton tours throughout 2012, the year of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.United KingdomDundee, McManus Gallery - 30 September 2011 - 8 January 2012
Leeds City Museum - 8 May - 24 June 2012Norwich Castle Museum - 7 July - 30 September 2012Laing Art Gallery, Tyne & Wear - 13 October - 2 December 2012
InternationalFine Art Gallery, Ballarat, Australia - 25 February - 15 April 2012Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada - 1 June - 3 September 2012

Perhaps the only compensation for missing this exhibition is that the book Queen Elizabeth II: Portraits by Cecil Beaton by Susanna Brown is available from the V and A Shop, here.
From the book's description:  "... This fascinating book explores Beaton's long relationship with the Queen and the royal family, and describes how his royal portraits shaped the monarchy's public image from the 1930s to the late 1960s... [and] moulded the world's perception of a princess, monarch and mother."


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