India Amanda Caroline Hicks; Sarah-Jane Gaselee; Diana, Princess of Wales; Clementine Hambro; Queen Elizabeth II

1 portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales

Identify sitters

© Lichfield

13 Likes voting
is closed

Thanks for Liking

Please Like other favourites!
If they inspire you please support our work.

Make a donation Close

India Amanda Caroline Hicks; Sarah-Jane Gaselee; Diana, Princess of Wales; Clementine Hambro; Queen Elizabeth II

by Patrick Lichfield
cibachrome print, 29 July 1981
9 7/8 in. x 15 1/8 in. (250 mm x 385 mm)
Purchased, 1986
Photographs Collection
NPG x29570

Artistback to top

Sittersback to top

This portraitback to top

Before her marriage, the princess worked as a nanny and nursery school teacher. She exhibits her natural rapport with children in this informal portrait, taken after the wedding ceremony as she chats with her youngest bridesmaid Clementine Hambro, one of her former charges. As an established society and fashion photographer and a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, Lichfield was eminently qualified to take the official wedding photographs for the then Prince and Princess of Wales.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Cannadine, Sir David (Introduction); Cooper, Tarnya; Stewart, Louise; MacGibbon, Rab; Cox, Paul; Peltz, Lucy; Moorhouse, Paul; Broadley, Rosie; Jascot-Gill, Sabina, Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits, 2018 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA, 7 October 2018 -3 February 2019. Bendigo Art Gallery, Australia, 16 March - 14 July 2019.), p. 209 Read entry

    Taken by Patrick Lichfield, official photographer at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, this image strikes an informal note. Photographed after the ceremony, the new princess is shown chatting with her youngest bridesmaid, Clementine Hambro. Diana had previously worked as a nanny and nursery teacher, and her rapport with young children is evident.

  • Gittings, Clare, Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I: An Educational Resource Pack, 2003
  • Moorhouse, Paul and Cannadine, David (appreciation), The Queen: Art and Image, 2011 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 17 May to 21 October 2012), p. 115 Read entry

    Taken shortly after the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales, Patrick Litchfield's photograph of the Queen, Princess Diana and her bridesmaids encapsulates the dynamics of a situation that would come to dominate the image of royalty in the 1980s. Diana is centre-stage, radiant. The Queen stands somewhat apart, dignified but removed, as a younger generation forms the focus of attention.

Placesback to top

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Events of 1981back to top

Current affairs

Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral. A crowd of 600,000 spectators filled the streets to catch a glimpse of the Royal couple, and 750 million viewers watched the event on television. The iconic moment came when Charles and Diana appeased the crowds by breaking royal protocol and kissing on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

Art and science

Andrew Lloyd-Webber's musical Cats, based on T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, opens in the West End. The show ran for 21 years.
Brideshead Revisited, the 1945 novel by Evelyn Waugh, is adapted for television by John Mortimer. The lavish production featured an all-star cast of Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom and John Gielgud, setting the bar high for future TV costume dramas.

International

Pope John Paul II is shot by a Turkish gunman in St Peter's Square in Rome. John Paul was rushed to hospital where he recovered, and Mehmet Ali Agca was caught and sentenced to life imprisonment.
HIV AIDS is identified in five men in Los Angeles.

Comments back to top

We are currently unable to accept new comments, but any past comments are available to read below.

If you need information from us, please use our Archive enquiry service . Please note that we cannot provide valuations. You can buy a print or greeting card of most illustrated portraits. Select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Buy a Print button. Prices start at around £6 for unframed prints, £16 for framed prints. If you wish to license an image, select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Use this image button, or contact our Rights and Images service. We digitise over 8,000 portraits a year and we cannot guarantee being able to digitise images that are not already scheduled.

great-british

05 November 2019, 11:40

Bridesmaid to the left must be Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones, aged seventeen at the time. The only other bridesmaid was Catherine Cameron, who was only six and so cannot be the bridesmaid to the left. Princess Margaret can also be seen in the peach-coloured dress - wedding photographs make it clear that it must be her.