Buckingham Palace King's Gallery Tickets

Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography - 17 May – 6 October 2024

For centuries, portraiture has played a vital role in shaping the public’s perception of the Royal Family. This exhibition will chart the evolution of royal portrait photography from the 1920s to the present day, bringing together more than 150 photographic prints, proofs and documents from the Royal Collection and the Royal Archives.

Discover works from the most celebrated royal photographers, from Cecil Beaton and Dorothy Wilding to Annie Leibovitz and Rankin. Explore some of the close relationships between royal sitters and photographers, seen most clearly through the lens of AntonyArmstrong-Jones (later Lord Snowdon), who married Princess Margaret in 1960.

The exhibition will shed light on behind-the-scenes processes, from photographers’ handwritten annotations to never-before-seen correspondence with members of the Royal Family and their staff, these materials will reveal the stories behind some of the most celebrated photographs ever taken of the Royal Family.

This exhibition is taking place at The King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace formerly known as The Queen’s Gallery.

The King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace shows changing exhibitions of works of art from the Royal Collection, one of the largest and most important art collections in the world. The Royal Collection is held in trust by the Sovereign for his successors and the nation. The gallery is located adjacent to Buckingham Palace, on the site of what was once a private chapel for Queen Victoria. The chapel was destroyed in an air raid in 1940, and at the suggestion of Queen Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh it was developed as an art gallery for the Royal Collection in 1962. In 1997, a project began to expand and modernise the gallery, the most significant addition to Buckingham Palace in 150 years. The gallery was opened in its current form by the late Queen as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002.