Vita Sackville-West
© Estate Gisèle Freund / IMEC Images
Share thisVita Sackville-West
by Gisèle Freund
colour dye transfer print, 1939
12 in. x 8 1/4 in. (304 mm x 208 mm)
Purchased, 1990
Primary Collection
NPG P437
Sitterback to top
- Victoria Mary ('Vita') Sackville-West (1892-1962), Writer and gardener; wife of Sir Harold Nicolson. Sitter associated with 28 portraits.
This portraitback to top
This colour photograph was taken at Sissinghurst Castle where Freund returned for another portrait session in 1946.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Birkett, Dea; Morris, Jan (foreword), Off the Beaten Track: Three Centuries of Women Travellers, 2004 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 7 July to 31 October 2004), p. 93
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 543
- Spalding, Frances, Virginia Woolf: Art, Life and Vision, 2014 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 10 July 2014 - 26 October 2014), p. 124
Placesback to top
- Place made: United Kingdom: England, Kent (sitter's home, Sissinghurst Castle, Cranbrook, Kent)
Events of 1939back to top
Current affairs
Britain goes to war. The German invasion of Poland demonstrated that the policy of appeasement had failed. After refusing to meet Britain's ultimatum to withdraw troops, Britain and France declared war on Germany. The Second World War had begun.Art and science
The Sutton Hoo burial ship is discovered. Apparently following a dream, Mrs Pretty invited the archaeologist Basil Brown to investigate a series of burial mounds on her estate on the banks of the river Deben in Suffolk. The excavation revealed an Anglo-Saxon burial, uncovering the most significant horde of early medieval artefacts found in Britain (now housed at the British Museum).International
The Second World War begins. Germany's invasion of Poland prompted Britain and France to declare war forming the core of the Allied powers. As part of the Soviet-Nazi Pact, the Soviet Union joined the war on the German side, helping, with Italy, to form the Axis Powers. Poland was soon overpowered and the Baltic Republics and Finland were invaded by the Soviet Union.Tell us more back to top
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