How a Royal Photographer Helped Fashion the New Image of the Late Queen Elizabeth

Cecil Beaton’s paintings have become some of the most famous images of the late Queen Elizabeth.

From those of her growing up as a young woman with her younger sister Princess Margaret to her coronation portrait in 1953, the pictures have delighted a world fascinated by the young monarch.

Now Beaton’s influence is celebrated in a stunning collection of some of the most historic vintage portraits of the late Queen, and Cecil Beaton: Royal Portraits sheds some light on how Elizabeth and her parents used the then new media to communicate with the world.

“No other photographer can offer such a comprehensive and enduring document of the British monarchy as Cecil Beaton,” says author Claudia Acott Williams, whose book has just been published. “It is significant that during the half century in which Beaton occupied the coveted role of royal photographer, the world, and with it the monarchy, went through significant changes: the Second World War, the fall of the British Empire, the appearance of television, the birth of the paparazzi, three reigns and comprehensive social changes .”

“Beaton’s evolving approach to his royal work encapsulates not only a document of a growing family, but also the changing social and political climate of the twentieth century,” adds Acott Williams. He helped “revitalize the image of the royal family through a period of great change.”

The photographer’s “work is one of the most thorough documents of her childhood and early reign,” says Acott Williams.

Cecil Beaton Royal Portraits are out now.

Courtesy of Thames & Hudson

Beaton enjoyed access to the family due to his close relationship with the Queen’s mother, who was also named Elizabeth. He had “instant chemistry with her,” says Acott Williams. “They moved in similar social circles and shared the joy of life.”

But it was more difficult for him to meet the soon-to-be new queen. “I don’t think Beaton and the Queen ever shared that same natural friendship – he spoke of seeing their relationship as more formal and being a bit in awe of her – but there was a trust that came from the fact that he photographed her at a young age.” adds Acott Williams.

After the death of Queen Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, in 1952 and her accession to the throne as a 24-year-old monarch, his “representation of the family, and especially royal motherhood, was one of Beaton’s greatest strengths, creating an unprecedented intimacy and a point of connection between the monarchy and the public, which, in my opinion, has been unmatched since then,” adds Acott Williams.

Here, Acott Williams, who is Curator of Collections at Historic Royal Palaces, talks about five key images from the book.

The then Princess Elizabeth with her son Prince Charles at Clarence House in September 1950.

The first is from a shoot commissioned to mark the birth of Princess Anne at Clarence House in 1950. “But the photographs of the two generations of royal heirs are the ones that are most special.” There’s a “spontaneity” to the recording, she says.

“They are some of Beaton’s most relaxed portraits of the future queen, perhaps because she was still monarch-in-waiting at the time, perhaps because Prince Philip, of whom Beaton did not approve, was conveniently absent, or perhaps because there is nothing like a cheeky toddler who can shake off any pretense,” says Acott Williams.

“Often chosen to mark important royal milestones, Beaton was particularly adept at tempering her untamed glamor with an intimate portrayal of motherhood that helped create an emotional affinity between the royal family and the public.”

Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret with their parents and corgis at Windsor Castle in 1943.

This second image shows King George VI, his wife and his daughters walking away from the camera at Windsor Castle with two or their corgis. Acott Williams says that “among the submissive wartime images of a family smiling stoically before Beaton’s camera,” this one stands out because it “seems to take the viewer behind the facade and make them complicit in a rare playful moment.”

“There is a connection – even a vulnerability – in seeing them from behind: the visible seam of Princess Margaret’s stocking, the cardigan slung over her shoulder, Queen Elizabeth’s casual gait and the eager, unchoreographed corgi trail that follows. Similarly, the architecture of Windsor Castle seems to overshadow its inhabitants and there is a sense that Beaton has captured a brief moment when the official face falters.”

The then Princess Elizabeth at Windsor Castle in March 1945.

A third image shows the late Queen Elizabeth amid a floral arrangement at Windsor Castle in 1945 and demonstrates “Beaton’s extraordinary ability to create a powerful narrative through his photographs,” says Acott Williams.

“Now it’s so striking to see young Elizabeth, posed perhaps like any other aristocratic teenage girl, but the portrait is laced with messages.”

The carnations symbolize her devotion to duty, and the “romantic background of Fragnoard” is the same one in front of which her mother and aunts were photographed before the war.

Elizabeth is also wearing one of “Mother’s sequined Norman Hartnell evening gowns,” notes Acott Williams. “Filmed in 1945, as the end of World War II loomed, this throwback to pre-war glamor serves as a harbinger of peace and conveys a certain defiance in the face of adversity designed to bolster British morale.”

Princess Elizabeth photographed by Cecil Beaton for the February 1943 cover of Life magazine.

This fourth picture marked the entry of the then Princess Elizabeth into public life at only 16 years old. World War II “encouraged an earlier entry into formal duties than might have been the case in peacetime,” adds Acott Williams. “The Royal Family played a significant role in boosting Britain’s war effort and the princesses were no exception.” In 1942, George VI gave his daughter the title of colonel of the Grenadier Guards, the first time in history that a woman had been given such a high position.

“The emphasis on her registration for national service alongside others of her age helped make Princess Elizabeth an emblem of public service for her generation.”

Princess Elizabeth in a playful pose with Prince Charles at Clarence House in 1950.

The last charming picture of Elizabeth with her son Charles at Clarence House in 1950 comes when Beaton spent eight years photographing the royal family.

“There is clearly a confidence and ease in front of his lens here. The extraordinary pose may have been spontaneous, but what is far more likely is that it was designed to imitate one of the most reproduced photographs of the last century which showed Princess (later Queen) Alexandra giving piggyback your own daughter,” suggests Acott Williams. “The pose was later copied by Elizabeth’s grandmother, Queen Mary, and once again provides a subtle nod to visual continuity in royal imagery.”

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And the sitting was particularly poignant for Acott Williams as she studied the original prints in the contemplative silence of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s archives, hearing that the Queen had died on September 8, 20022. “When the news flashed on my iPhone screen, the familiar wide smile then 24 -year-old Princess Elizabeth enlightened me in multiple prints spread out on the table.”

“As I contemplated the end of Britain’s longest reign surrounded by photographs taken two years ago, I was struck by how influential Beaton’s photographs and texts have been to our understanding of the woman behind the crown.”

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Source: HIS Education

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