EXHIBITION: To celebrate The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the V&A is holding an exhibition of portraits of Her Majesty by photographer Cecil Beaton (1904-1980). Presenting highlights of the V&A’s archive of Beaton’s royal photography, the exhibition will depict the Queen in her roles as princess, monarch and mother and include a number of photographs never before seen as well as Beaton’s diaries and letters
Romantic images of the teenage Princess Elizabeth and her mother and sister are followed by glittering and highly-staged photographs of the Queen in her Coronation robes. There are tender portraits of the Queen at home with her husband and young family, and later official portraits. The exhibition includes a number of rarely seen photographs, as well as film clips and Beaton's personal scrapbooks, and shows how the popular image of the monarchy changed dramatically over the course of the 20th century.