Vita Sackville-West
(1892-1962), Writer and gardener; wife of Sir Harold NicolsonVictoria Mary ('Vita') Sackville-West
Sitter associated with 28 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 John Hedgecoe
bromide print, 1958
NPG P775
by Lord Snowdon
gelatin silver print, 5 June 1961
NPG P1917
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
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 C-type colour print, 1949
NPG x200081
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by Walter Stoneman
bromide print, 1957
NPG x28912
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.