Vita Sackville-West
(1892-1962), Writer and gardener; wife of Sir Harold NicolsonVictoria Mary ('Vita') Sackville-West
Sitter associated with 29 portraits
Vita Sackville-West was born at Knole, Kent. Like her husband Harold Nicolson, Sackville-West was a prolific author and her publications include Knole and the Sackvilles (1922) about her birthplace and ancestry, the long poem The Land (1926), and the novel, All Passion Spent (1931). Her disappointment at being unable, as a woman, to inherit the Knole estate found positive expression in her subsequent collaboration with Nicolson on the garden of their home at Sissinghurst Castle. Her affair with Violet Trefusis, and her later relationship with Virginia Woolf, which inspired Woolf to write historical-fantasy novel Orlando (1928), provided the backdrop for her marriage to Nicolson.
by E.O. Hoppé
sepia-toned matte bromide print, 28 February 1924
NPG P1087
by William Rothenstein
red and black chalk, 1925
NPG 6716
by Gisèle Freund
colour dye transfer print, 1939
NPG P437
by Lord Snowdon
gelatin silver print, 5 June 1961
NPG P1917
acrylic on paper collaged on panels, 2021-2022
On display in Room 33 on Floor 0 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG 7145
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by Speaight Ltd, published by Hudson & Kearns Ltd
photogravure, 20 June 1911, published 1912
NPG Ax135793
'The Great Petticoat Lane Fair: Some Prominent Stallholders at the Albert Hall'
by Unknown photographer
halftone reproduction tear sheet, 1915-1916
NPG Ax105838
Vita Sackville-West; Olive Elizabeth Chalk Rubens (née Hood)
by E.O. Hoppé
halftone reproduction tear sheet, published 28 June 1916
NPG x136836
by Emil Otto ('E.O.') Hoppé
halftone reproduction, published 6 December 1916
NPG Ax105843
Raymond Mortimer; Vita Sackville-West; Edward Knoblock and three unknown sitters
by Lady Ottoline Morrell
vintage snapshot print, 1925
NPG Ax142210
Vita Sackville-West; Sir Desmond MacCarthy; Harold Nicolson
by Lady Ottoline Morrell
vintage snapshot print, 1925
NPG Ax142211
Lady Ottoline Morrell with friends
by Philip Edward Morrell
vintage snapshot print, 1925
NPG Ax142212
Lady Ottoline Morrell with friends
by Philip Edward Morrell
vintage snapshot print, 1925
NPG Ax142214
by Howard Coster
print, circa 1927
NPG x10667
by Howard Coster
10 x 8 inch film negative, 1934
NPG x12029
by Howard Coster
10 x 8 inch film negative, 1934
NPG x12030
by Howard Coster
10 x 8 inch film negative, 1934
NPG x12031
by Howard Coster
half-plate film negative, 1934
NPG x23916
by John Gay
bromide fibre print, 1948
NPG x47301
by John Gay
bromide fibre print, 1948
NPG x47302
by John Gay
vintage bromide print, 1948
NPG x126519
by John Gay
vintage bromide print, 1948
NPG x126520
Victoria Mary ('Vita') Sackville-West
by Norman Parkinson
digital chromogenic print, 1949
NPG x200081
by Walter Stoneman
bromide print, 1957
NPG x28912
by Cecil Beaton
bromide print on white card mount, 1958
NPG x14197
by Kurt Hutton (Kurt Hubschman)
bromide print, 1961
NPG x194025
Arthur David Waley; Vita Sackville-West; Sir Osbert Sitwell; Edith Sitwell; Walter de la Mare
by Unknown photographer
bromide print, 14 April 1943
NPG x45793
Related People
- Adam Nicolson, 5th Baron Carnock (grandson)
- Benedict Nicolson (son)
- Sir Harold George Nicolson (husband)
- Nigel Nicolson (son)
- Lionel Edward Sackville-West, 3rd Baron Sackville (father)
- Charles Sackville-West, 4th Baron Sackville (uncle)
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Anne Matthews
04 September 2019, 23:18
Jane Bown photographed Vita Sackville-West in 1960. Reference ‘Exposures’, pub. 2009 by Guardian books. Arresting images of later life.