Dorothy Wilding
(1893-1976), PhotographerSitter in 30 portraits
Artist associated with 2179 portraits
Dorothy Wilding began her photographic career as an apprentice to Bond Street photographer Marian Neilson. Wilding was the first woman to be appointed as the Official Royal Photographer for the 1937 Coronation and opened a second studio in New York in the same year. She is best known for her brightly lit linear compositions photographed in high key lighting against a white background. Her autobiography In Pursuit of Perfection was published in 1958. Her surviving archives were presented to the National Portrait Gallery by her sister Mrs Susan Morton 1976 and formed the basis of a major NPG retrospective exhibition and catalogue in 1991, The Pursuit of Perfection.
by Dorothy Wilding
cream-toned bromide print on tissue and card mount, mid 1920s
NPG P870(13)
by Dorothy Wilding
chlorobromide print on tissue and card mount, circa 1928
NPG P210
Indira Devi, Maharani of Cooch Behar
by Dorothy Wilding
chlorobromide print on tissue and card mount, 1928
NPG P870(2)
by Dorothy Wilding
vintage tissue-mounted bromide print, 1930
NPG P870(3)
by Dorothy Wilding
chlorobromide print on tissue and card mount, 1933
NPG P870(8)
by Dorothy Wilding
chlorobromide print on tissue and card mount, 1934
NPG P870(9)
Prince George, Duke of Kent and Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent
by Dorothy Wilding
chlorobromide print on tissue and card mount, 1934
NPG P870(10)
by Dorothy Wilding
chlorobromide print on tissue and card mount, 1935
NPG P870(15)
by Dorothy Wilding
chlorobromide print on tissue and card mount, 1937
NPG P870(16)
Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother
by Dorothy Wilding
chlorobromide print on tissue and card mount, 12 January 1937
NPG P870(4)
Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester
by Dorothy Wilding
chlorobromide print on tissue and card mount, 1939
NPG P870(7)
Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent
by Dorothy Wilding
chlorobromide print on tissue and card mount, 1940
NPG P870(11)
by Dorothy Wilding
chlorobromide print on tissue and card mount, November 1947
NPG P870(12)
by Dorothy Wilding
chlorobromide print on white card mount, 1952
NPG P870(1)
by Dorothy Wilding
cream-toned bromide print on tissue mount, 15 April 1952
NPG P870(6)
by Dorothy Wilding
chlorobromide print on tissue and card mount, 26 February 1952
NPG P870(5)
Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor (King Edward VIII)
by Dorothy Wilding
cream-toned bromide print, 7 February 1955
NPG P870(14)
by Dorothy Wilding
bromide print, early 1920s
NPG x17041
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James J Going
18 August 2015, 22:21
Dear National Portrait Gallery I am attempting to research the life of artists' and photographers' model Rhoda Madge Beasley (1911-1935). There is a well known photograph of her by EO Hoppe taken in 1935. She was also photographed by Dorothy Wilding (2 pictures in the NPG Archives) and painted by several artists and sat for the sculptor Frank Dobson. Sadly, she died very young (she was only 24) in London in December 1935 and it has been difficult to find out any more about her. Given that she was photographed by Dorothy Wilding whose archive is at the NPG it did occur to me there might be materials relating to her or indeed other photographs of her in the Wilding archive. I should be most interested to discover if you think this might be a possibility, and if so how one might take it further. With best wishes, yours sincerely, James J. Going. MD PhD, Consultant Pathologist Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Glasgow.