Equally, in many of Princess Diana’s most famous early images she is either in country attire, colourful jumpers or a simple shirt. This includes a 1988 shoot she did with major fashion photographer David Bailey – a man who helped lead the Sixties youthquake and who revolutionised the way models were shot.
The only images that had been released from the 1988 Bailey shoot were of Diana in a crisp white shirt and trousers, looking relaxed and smiling to the camera. Until yesterday, that is, when a never-before-seen photograph of the Princess by Bailey went on display at Kensington Palace. It showed the little-known “stoic” and traditionally regal side of the woman everyone assumed would one day be Queen.
“It was part of a commission by the National Gallery,” explains Claudia Ascott Williams, the curator of this new Kensington Palace exhibition about the Royal family and photography. “A number of established royal photographers, including Norman Parkinson, were suggested, and the choice of Bailey was very much Diana’s. To me, it’s an interesting image. Yes, it’s quite a traditional depiction of royal women, but for Diana it was different because before this photo, the identity she had established was warm and approachable.”
It is impossible not to compare the image to the Duchess of Cambridge’s official 40th birthday portraits, which were also a fascinating departure from the photographs we’ve grown accustomed to seeing of her. She too was shot by a high fashion photographer – this time Paolo Roversi, whose dreamy, impressionistic pictures have made him a favourite for decades with top-ranking fashion magazines and designers including Dior and Saint Laurent.
“There is absolutely something similar about these two portraits,” says Ascott Williams. “What’s interesting is that you can connect them both back to the Dorothy Wilding portraits of the Queen but also to images of Queen Victoria and Queen Mary. They both relate to a very long history of royal representation on stamps long before photography came into the picture.”
