HM Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022) Reigned 1952-2022

David Bailey (1938 - )

Colour photograph, archival inkjet print

2014

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© David Bailey

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  • About the work
    Location
    Country: Singapore
    City: Singapore
    Place: British High Commission

    The Queen beams at us dressed in a bright blue gown, and a sapphire-and-diamond necklace and earrings (a present from her father, George VI, on the occasion of her wedding to Prince Philip, in 1947). David Bailey CBE photographed Her Majesty The Queen in March 2014 for the GREAT Britain Campaign, which aims to promote the UK abroad. The portraits were reissued in 2017 to commemorate the 65th anniversary of Her Majesty’s accession to the throne.


  • About the artist
    Born in Leytonstone in 1938, David Royston Bailey left school at 15 to become a copy boy at the Yorkshire Post. Affected by dyslexia, Bailey reflected in 2011 that ‘dyslexia gave me a privilege. It pushed me into being totally visual.’ He was called up for National Service in 1956, serving with the Royal Air Force in Singapore. Bailey worked as an assistant to David Ollins and at the John French studio, before joining John Cole’s Studio Five in 1960 as a photographer where he worked as a fashion photographer for British Vogue magazine. Associated with the 'Swinging London' of the 1960s, Bailey further captured this scene in TV Documentaries and film. In 2001, he was appointed a CBE and awarded The Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship in 2005. The exhibition Bailey’s Stardust opened at the National Gallery in 2014, and brought together a wide variety of his photographs from a career that has spanned more than half a century.
  • Explore
    People
    Elizabeth II (1926 - 2022)
    Places
    Subjects
    portrait, royal portrait, sapphire, diamond (as gemstone), woman, necklace, Queen
    Materials & Techniques
    photograph (as object name), colour photograph, inkjet print
  • Details
    Artist
    David Bailey (1938 - )
    Title
    HM Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022) Reigned 1952-2022
    Date
    2014
    Medium
    Colour photograph, archival inkjet print
    Dimensions
    height: 112.5 cm; width: 87.1 cm; depth: 5.5 cm
    Acquisition
    Presented by the GREAT Campaign, March 2020
    GAC number
    18865