28 August 2024 10:00
Lee Miller and Margot Fonteyn at the RAD
Celebrating our longest-serving President, Dame Margot Fonteyn, at RAD headquarters, we are excited to be able to exhibit three astonishing portraits captured by one of the world’s most travelled and innovative photographers, Lee Miller.
Photo: Copyright Lee Miller Archives - Margot Fonteyn, London, England, 1944.
Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, Miller was a Vanity Fair and Vogue model before she moved to Paris to study photography with the Dada and surrealist artist, Man Ray. This led her to specialise in photos of fashion and fine art.
At the outbreak of World War II, she became a war correspondent for Vogue, covering the London Blitz, the siege of St. Malo, the Allied liberation of Paris, the horror of the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps, and more.
During her time in London in 1944, Miller took the opportunity to photograph various famous people, including Dylan Thomas, James Mason, and even Henry Moore making sketches in an air-raid shelter. But her portraits of Dame Margot Fonteyn remain some of the most recognised and famous images of the legendary ballerina and mark a collaboration between two of the most celebrated people in their respective art forms.
The prints are on loan to the RAD from Farleys House & Gallery, Lee Miller’s former home in Sussex, as part of Farleys’ 75th-anniversary celebrations. They can be seen to the right as you enter the reception (next to the RAD shop) from 1 September - 15 December 2024.
The display is free to view and no booking is required.