Society snapper the Earl of Snowdon became de facto official photographer of the Royal family after his marriage to Princess Margaret.
But his celebrated image of prince charles and Diana enjoys a picnic with Princes William and Harry takes a beating in the National Portrait Gallery’s official book to mark the King’s coronation.
In the foreword to Charles III: The Making Of A King, the gallery’s chief curator, Dr. Alison Smith, writes that the 1991 rural scene “is a rather forced throwback to the kind of conversational piece favored by the English aristocracy in the 18th century.” gave to. down to the horse in the background and the oak that suggests endurance.
“In retrospect, the sheer ingenuity and artificiality of the composition serves to underline the appearance of a harmonious family life at a time when the couple’s relationship was strained.”
The gallery was less critical of Lord Snowdon’s work when he donated 130 original prints to it in 2014. It showed its gratitude with an exhibition of his work. Indeed, after his death in 2017, then-director Nicholas Cullinan said Snowdon’s “contribution to photography was profound and far-reaching.”
Earl Snowdon’s celebrated photo of Prince Charles and Diana enjoying a picnic with Princes William and Harry takes a beating in the National Portrait Gallery’s official book to mark the King’s coronation
Much more successful in revealing “the man behind the mask” of King Charles, according to Dr. Smith, is a 2018 photo of him and Queen Camilla taken by Alex Lubomirski.
This image finds the couple at “affectionate ease in each other’s company.” Camilla’s hand on Charles’ thigh adds an intimate touch, perhaps a delicate violation of the royal code of not touching in public.
Cate’s new look is… striking!
She’s one of the world’s biggest movie stars, but two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett was almost unrecognizable as she strolled around London in huge orange glasses.
Seemingly makeup-free, the 53-year-old actress looked a long way from this year’s Academy Awards ceremony, where she donned a glittering, ’80s-inspired Louis Vuitton outfit, right?
Blanchett, who was nominated for Oscars twice for playing Elizabeth I, lost out on this year’s Best Actress award to Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All At Once. Married to playwright Andrew Upton, with whom she has four children, Blanchett moved to Britain in 2015. The couple live in a country house in East Sussex.
Perhaps the oversized specs were a tribute to fellow Australian Dame Edna Everage?
Cate Blanchett was almost unrecognizable as she strolled around London in huge orange glasses
Blanchett, who was nominated for Oscars twice for playing Elizabeth I, lost this year’s Best Actress award to Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All At Once
Expect tears before bed at Charlotte Church’s ‘wellness’ retreat in a £1.5 million mansion in Wales. “One of my favorite things we do is heavenly blessings, where we go out and dance to the dawn with a silent disco,” says the singer. “It’s amazing – some of us are dancing wildly, others are crying at the beauty of the whole situation. It really is a wonderland.’
Royal architect Sir James Dunbar-Nasmith, who died on Saturday aged 96, designed Sunninghill Park, which was given as a wedding present by Queen Elizabeth to her second son, Prince Andrew, and his bride, Sarah Ferguson.
It was criticized for looking like a Tesco supermarket and was nicknamed ‘SouthYork’ in reference to the ‘Southfork’ estate in the American soap opera Dallas. However, Andrew managed to sell it to a businessman from Kazakhstan in 2007 for £15 million, £3 million more than the asking price.
However, it will not remain a monument to Sir James, as its owner obtained planning permission to demolish it in 2013.
Countess: Why Althorp can feel a little dead
Earl Spencer was not invited to his daughter Lady Amelia’s wedding in South Africa this week, and his Canadian wife, Karen, is trying to brighten up the ancestral seat, Althorp.
She likes to fill the Northamptonshire mansion, where Princess Diana grew up, with flowers to counteract the ‘dead’ and museum-like atmosphere.
“It feels so different when you have flowers in this house,” said Countess Spencer, 50, the third wife of historian Charles, 58.
“The flowers bring the room to life because it can feel a little bit museum-like and a little bit dead. But when you get the flowers in, the room comes to life in a different way.’
Karen, Earl Spencer’s Canadian wife, tries to brighten up the ancestral seat, Althorp
Known as one of Hollywood’s biggest hell-raisers, Johnny Depp has revealed that he prefers a quiet life in the West Country, where he bought an 850-acre estate complete with a 19th-century mansion.
“I just like places with character,” he tells Somerset Life magazine. ‘British people are cool and will greet you as if you were a neighbor – without being over the top. I like to go places, see things and meet people – but I’m not the big extrovert people think.’
Depp, 59, adds: ‘Honestly, I’m quite a shy person. That’s one of the great things about Britain, and especially Somerset. I can just be myself – and that’s nice.
“I can go into stores without being surrounded by people wanting selfies. To a certain extent I don’t mind that, but sometimes it gets a little too busy.”
Do you dream of being invited to Buckingham Palace to get an honor? Well, Griff Rhys Jones complains it was terribly boring.
“I should warn everyone, if you’re like me – kind of a hyperactive person – – the actual work of getting to the palace to retrieve the piece of metal is a pretty long, drawn out thing,” the comedian laments, 69, who was awarded his OBE by Prince William in 2019.
‘The presiding royal member, as it should be, spends a whole day chatting with officials, who have finally [honour].
“You stand in line and say, ‘Come on, come on – I didn’t think it would take this long.'”