Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton: A Diamond Jubilee Celebration - review - Visual Arts - Arts

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Many photographs familiar from recent TV documentaries re-appear alongside previously unseen portraits and revealing contact prints that expose the editing conducted by royal subject and photographer. Early works show the Queen Mother, then Duchess of York, posing in glittering Thirties dresses against cascades of flowers, an idea inspired by the French painter Fragonard and a style which introduced Beaton to the royal circle. The Second World War brought a shift to simplicity: the 1942 series included 16-year-old Elizabeth in military uniform, and a contrasting documentary of bomb damage at the palace.

With peace came a brief, glamorous phase until the 1953 Coronation triggered Beaton's new and candid portraiture, and this exhibition includes contact prints offering a fuller picture of the process.

Beaton is the photographer fixing the new Queen's jewels and robes as she poses in her crown with her maids of honour. Beaton created a dramatic, geometric design contrasting with family snapshots of toddlers Charles and Anne playing with their grandmother.

The carefully composed childhood photographs seem incongruous in Beaton's oeuvre but radiate a surprising tenderness from the outsider. Emphasis is on Prince Charles's fascination with his baby siblings and the playfulness of his mother.

New blank backdrops inspired by Irving Penn and Richard Avedon entered Beaton's visual vocabulary following Penn's portrait of him in 1950, against a misty sheet of paper. Beaton's last photographs of the Queen position her against such a sheet, the military cloak shaped into a triangular, sculptural form.

The gallery's shop is packed with Beatonabilia, including chocolate bars bearing his portrait of Prince Philip dressed for the Coronation. Would the two men laugh?

Until April 22 (0871 971 5939, vam.ac.uk)

Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton: A Diamond Jubilee Celebration
V&A
Cromwell Road
South Kensington
SW7 2RL