Dame Margot Fonteyn
(1919-1991), Ballet dancerSitter in 47 portraits
Born Margaret Hookham in Reigate, in 1934 Margot attended the Vic-Wells Ballet School, and by the time she was twenty had danced the lead in three of the great classics: Giselle, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. She later joined Lilian Baylis's Sadlers Wells Company where she became emotionally involved with Constant Lambert (brother of the sculptor Maurice Lambert), who wrote Horoscope (1938) for her. She danced the lead in his Tiresias (1951). Fonteyn came out of semi-retirement to dance with Rudolf Nureyev at his debut with the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden, in 1962, and with him formed one of the greatest ballet partnerships of the twentieth century.
Watch a film clip on the sitter from the BBC Archive in the Media section below
by Maurice Lambert
bronze bust, 1956
On display in Room 31 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG 6033
Margot Fonteyn; John Cyril Cranko
by Lord Snowdon
gelatin silver print, 4 January 1972
NPG P1865
by Bern Schwartz
dye transfer print, 3 May 1977
NPG P1167
by Bassano Ltd
half-plate glass negative, 31 December 1935
NPG x127566
by Bassano Ltd
half-plate glass negative, 31 December 1935
NPG x127567
by Bassano Ltd
half-plate glass negative, 31 December 1935
NPG x127568
by Bassano Ltd
half-plate glass negative, 31 December 1935
NPG x127569
by Bassano Ltd
whole-plate glass negative, 1936
NPG x19229
by Bassano Ltd
whole-plate film negative, 1936
NPG x19230
Margot Fonteyn, Mary Honer and June Brae (June Telfer Bear)
by Edward Malindine, for Daily Herald
modern bromide print from original negative, 24 September 1937
NPG x131125
by Paul Tanqueray
vintage bromide print, 1943
NPG x14284
by Ida Kar
vintage bromide print, 1950s
NPG x125355
by Paul Tanqueray
matte bromide print, 1950s
NPG x14285
by Cecil Beaton
bromide print on white card mount, 28 October 1950
NPG x14079
Margot Fonteyn; Sir Robert Murray Helpmann
by Norman Parkinson
bromide print on card mount, 1951
NPG x30080
Violetta Elvin (née Prokhorova); Ninette de Valois; Margot Fonteyn
by Keystone Press Agency Ltd
bromide press print, 14 October 1954
NPG x184371
by Vivienne
vintage bromide print, 1956
NPG x6044
by Vivienne
vintage bromide print, 1956
NPG x87934
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- Portrait of the Day: Dame Margot Fonteyn
28 June, 12:30