The Royal Collection Trust is commemorating the 70th anniversary of the first iconic portraits taken of the new Queen Elizabeth II by sharing four images of the portrait session.
On 26 February 1952, the young queen, just 20 days into her reign, sat for her first official portraits by photographer Dorothy Wilding, which marked the first time a female photographer had ever officially photographed a monarch.
In these special portraits shared by the Royal Collection Trust, The Queen is wearing single pearl earrings and her South Africa Necklace, which was a 21st birthday gift from the South African government in 1947, where she gave her famous speech that her whole life “whether it be long or short” would be devoted to serving the Crown and Commonwealth. In the portraits, this necklace has been modified to feature 15 large stones.
The portraits by Dorothy Wilding will be on display at the Buckingham Palace State Rooms this summer as part of the ‘Platinum Jubilee: The Queen’s Accession’ exhibition. In total, 24 of the 59 photographs will be on display, as well as the jewellery that Her Majesty wore for the portrait session, including the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara.
Wilding’s portraits comprised the image used on stamps until 1971 and the official portrait of The Queen that hung in British Embassies around the world.
Wilding had photographed royalty prior to The Queen—she took the engagement photos for Prince George and Princess Marina, the Duke and Duchess of Kent in 1934; and her studio photographed Wallis Warfield Simpson in 1935, though she was not present at the session. The image was later used as the basis for Wallis’s Time magazine cover when she was chosen as Person of the Year in 1936—but this commission was her greatest achievement.
‘Platinum Jubilee: The Queen’s Accession’ will be on display at Buckingham Palace from 22 July to 2 October 2022.
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