Unseen portraits of Queen, Princess Margaret to go on public display for first time

LONDON - Unseen and cherished childhood portraits of Queen Elizabeth II and her sister Princess Margaret to go on public display for the first time in an exhibition celebrating the work of the photographer Marcus Adams.

The exhibition opens at The Queen’s Gallery in Edinburgh on February 25 and runs until June.

Among the photographs on exhibition are a three-year-old Princess Elizabeth cuddling her father, King George VI in 1929 when he was the Duke of York with her sister Margaret; and the two girls with their mother, Queen Elizabeth, in 1940. It also includes childhood portraits of the Prince of Wales and Princess Royal.

The family portraits are from the late Queen Elizabeth’s private collection.

According to The Telegraph, they include some of the most informal studio portraits ever taken of the princesses with their parents, which will be among more than 100 prints on display dating from 1926 to 1956.

Adams, who died in 1959, set up a Children’s Studio in London in 1920 and quickly became one of the country’s most renowned photographers of children.

He filled his studio with toys and even disguised his camera as a toy cabinet to put his subjects at ease. His studio, which contained no visible cameras, lights or other equipment, was described by him as “a bright and very happy play room” and used a long cable to press the shutter so he did not have to disappear behind the camera.

He once described photography as “ninety-five per cent psychology and only five per cent mechanical”.

Many of Adams’s pictures were released as official portraits, appearing in the press and on calendars, biscuit tins and jigsaws, but others were kept by Queen Elizabeth and George VI for their private family album. (ANI)