A never-before-seen image of Diana, Princess of Wales, taken by David Bailey is to feature in a new exhibition of royal photography.
The snap, taken in 1988, will go on display at Kensington Palace from Friday (March 4), as part of a major new exhibition titled Life Through A Royal Lens, exploring the British Royal Family’s enduring relationship with the camera.
The striking black and white portrait showing the Princess reserved, stoic and looking away from the viewer, comes from a sitting commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery.
While several photographs from this shoot were acquired for their collection, this portrait was retained by Bailey for his archive and has never been seen in public before.
Several established royal photographers were suggested to the Princess for the commission, but experts say her choice of David Bailey’s bold minimalism reflected her desire to establish a new photographic identity for herself.
She was only the second member of the Royal Family to sit for Bailey, the first being Lord Snowdon – husband of Princess Margaret, and himself a renowned photographer – in 1965.
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The image of him smoking a cigar also features in the exhibition, and secured Bailey’s place in popular culture as a central figure of Swinging Sixties London.
Postponed from its original opening in 2020, Life Through a Royal Lens will see some of the most iconic royal photographs ever taken go on show alongside a host of images providing a glimpse of the Royal Family off duty.
From the stiff formality of the Victorian era, through the high glamour of Cecil Beaton’s photographs of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to the relaxed informality of the digital age.
The David Bailey image of Diana is on loan from The Princess Diana Museum.
Lord Snowdon’s iconic photograph of Princess Margaret wearing the Poltimore Tiara – designed by royal jeweller Garrard in 1870 and worn by the Princess on her wedding day in 1960 - in the bathtub at their home in Kensington Palace also features in the exhibition.
Elsewhere in the display, iconic magazine photoshoots including the Duke of Cambridge’s cover photo in Attitude Magazine and the Duchess of Cambridge’s centenary issue of British Vogue in 2016 will explore how photography and image remain central to the public’s perception of the modern Royal Family today.
The Life Through a Royal Lens exhibition will be on display at Kensington Palace until October 30.
