Snowdon Gives 130 Famous Portraits To Gallery

Lord Snowdon has donated more than 100 of his portraits featuring stars such as David Bowie and Julie Christie to the National Portrait Gallery.

Sir Laurence Olivier, Dame Maggie Smith, murder mystery writer Agatha Christie and artist Henry Moore are among the faces featured.

The gift of 130 photographs from Lord Snowdon's archive is one of the largest the London gallery has ever received.

It will be the first time several of the shots have ever been on display.

Lord Snowdon, who was married to Princess Margaret from 1960 to 1978, turned his lens on the worlds of theatre, fashion and high society when he began his career in the 1950s.

The 84-year-old is known for his six-decade association with Vogue and in the early 1960s worked with the Sunday Times Magazine on documentary subjects from mental health to loneliness.

Other portraits visitors will see feature actors John Hurt and Alan Bates, writers Kingsley Amis and Graham Greene, musicians Yehudi Menuhin and George Melly and artist Barbara Hepworth.

The gallery's director Sandy Nairne said: "The National Portrait Gallery is delighted that Lord Snowdon should have made such a generous further gift of prints to the collection.

"These are wonderful portrait images of some most creative and engaging contributors to Britain in the second half of the 20th century."

:: Snowdon: A Life In View, runs at the National Portrait Gallery, London, from September 26, 2014 to June 21, 2015.