A rare portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales, will be on public display for the first time after it was recently sold at auction.
The oil sketch, a preparatory study for a formal full-length portrait by American artist Nelson Shanks, was completed in 1994, three years before Diana’s death in Paris. It made headlines in January, when it was sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $201,600 – more than ten times its original estimate.
In the study, the late princess, whose eyes are cast downwards, appears deep in thought. The sketch was one of several used to capture “authentic expressions” that would eventually be used as source material for the final portrait, according to a press release from Philip Mould & Company, the London-based gallery showcasing the work at the Masterpiece London Art Fair, from 30 June to 6 July.
She is depicted wearing Shanks’ original choice for an outfit, a Catherine Walker green velvet halter dress that she was also photographed in for a spread in Vanity Fair’s June 1997 issue. She would later change into a more traditional white blouse and blue skirt for the final portrait. It was hung at the royal residence of Kensington Palace, and later in Diana’s family home in Althorp, about 90 miles northwest of London.
The final portrait took more than 30 sittings, held at Shanks’ London studio. Those sessions became an occasion of relief for Diana during a troubled period in her life that saw her marriage to Prince Charles crumble. She became friends with the artist and his wife, Leona, and later confided in a letter that “coming to the studio was a safe haven, so full of love and support.”
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Princess Diana poses for a portrait in 1990. She would have been 60 years old on July 1, 2021.
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Diana, seen here on her first birthday, was born Diana Frances Spencer on July 1, 1961. She was born into a noble family in Sandringham, England. Her father, John, was Viscount Althorp before becoming the 8th Earl Spencer in 1975.
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Diana circa 1965. Growing up, she attended private schools in England and Switzerland.
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Diana poses with her brother, Charles, in 1968. She also had two sisters, Sarah and Jane.
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Diana, far right, is photographed with her father, John, and her three siblings circa 1970. Sarah is on the far left and Jane is next to Diana. When Diana was 7 years old, her parents divorced and her father was given custody of the children.
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A teenage Diana receives a "kiss" from her pony, Scuffle, in 1974. A year later, she became Lady Diana after her grandfather died and her father became the 8th Earl Spencer.
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After finishing school, Diana worked various jobs, including cook, nanny and kindergarten teacher. Here she is in 1980 with two children she looked after as a nanny.
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Diana and Camilla Parker-Bowles visit the Ludlow racecourse in October 1980, where Prince Charles was competing as a jockey. Diana and Charles would be engaged just a few months later. Prince Charles admitted in 1994 to a relationship with Parker-Bowles while still married to Diana; Charles and Camilla wed in 2005.
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Diana looks startled after stalling her new car outside her London apartment in November 1980.
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Diana is surrounded by photographers shortly before it was announced that she was engaged to Prince Charles.
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Diana and Charles pose at Buckingham Palace after the announcement of their engagement on February 24, 1981.
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Diana and Charles arrive at Goldsmith Hall in London for a charity recital in March 1981.
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The couple poses with Charles' mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in March 1981.
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The royal wedding was held July 29, 1981, at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. It was estimated that more than 700 million people watched the ceremony on television.
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Charles and Diana kiss on the Buckingham Palace balcony after being married.
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During their honeymoon, Charles and Diana leave Gibraltar on the royal yacht Britannia.
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The couple spends part of their honeymoon in Scotland.
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Charles and Diana attend the Grand National horse race in April 1982.
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In June 1982, Diana gave birth to her first child, William.
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Diana greets a child while visiting Wrexham, Wales, in November 1982.
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Charles, William and Diana pose for a photo at Kensington Palace in February 1983.
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Diana gave birth to a second son, Harry, in September 1984.
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Charles kisses his wife after a polo match in Cirencester, England, in June 1985.
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Diana watches her boys play at the piano in Kensington Palace in October 1985.
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Diana helps William with a puzzle in October 1985.
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Diana attends a polo match that her husband played in Palm Beach, Florida, in November 1985.
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Diana dances with actor John Travolta at the White House in November 1985. Dancing behind Travolta are US President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan. Diana's blue velvet dress -- nicknamed the "Travolta dress" -- was auctioned in 2019 for £264,000 ($347,000).
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Diana holds up Harry in the garden of Highgrove House, a royal residence in Gloucestershire, England, in July 1986.
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William rides a miniature pony at Highgrove House.
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Prince Harry shows a bit of his personality on the Buckingham Palace balcony in June 1988.
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Diana and her two boys walk outside the Wetherby School in London in April 1990.
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Diana visits children at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London in March 1991.
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Diana and her sons go skiing in Lech, Austria, in April 1991.
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Diana shakes hands with a resident of Casey House, an AIDS Hospice, in Toronto, in October 1991. Diana's actions helped to break the stigmas associated with AIDS at the time.
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Diana visits Egypt in May 1992.
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Charles and Diana attend a memorial service during a tour of South Korea in November 1992. A month later, it was announced that they had formally separated.
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Diana and her sons visit Thorpe Park, a theme park in Surrey, England, in April 1993.
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Diana crouches down to speak to a little boy outside the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London in May 1993.
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Diana arrives at the Serpentine Gallery in London in June 1994.
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A police officer holds back a photographer as Diana walks by in July 1996. It had just been announced that Diana and Charles had divorced.
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Diana talks to amputees in Angola, where she traveled in January 1997 to bring attention to the anti-land mine campaign of the International Red Cross. Sitting on her lap is Sandra Thijica, a 13-year-old who lost her left leg to a land mine.
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Diana visits Cape Town, South Africa, and meets with South African President Nelson Mandela in March 1997.
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Diana holds hands with Mother Teresa after they met in New York in June 1997.
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This photo, taken from surveillance video, shows Diana arriving at the Ritz Hotel in Paris on August 30, 1997. It is one of the last photos of her alive.
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Diana is seen in a Ritz Hotel elevator with her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed. After leaving the hotel, the couple was killed in a high-speed car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris.
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Wreckage is lifted away after the car Diana was in crashed into a pillar on August 31, 1997. Fayed and driver Henri Paul died at the scene. Diana died at a Paris hospital a few hours later. A French investigation concluded that Paul was legally drunk at the time and responsible for the accident. In 2008, a British coroner's jury found that Diana and Fayed were unlawfully killed because of the actions of Paul and pursuing paparazzi.
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On the eve of Diana's funeral, the Queen and Prince Philip look at floral tributes left outside Buckingham Palace. More than 1 million bouquets of flowers were left at Kensington Palace, Buckingham Palace and St. James's Palace in the wake of Diana's death.
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Diana's coffin is carried into London's Westminster Cathedral in September 1997. Watching at the bottom, from left, is Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Charles Spencer, Prince William and Prince Philip.
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A rose is placed on a memorial fountain that was dedicated to Diana in London's Hyde Park in 2004.
Shanks, who passed away in 2015, was world-renowned for his portraits, having painted the likes of US President Ronald Reagan, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, opera singer Luciano Pavarotti and Pope John Paul II. His official portrait of US President Bill Clinton hangs at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.
“As royal painted portraits go, it is extraordinarily rare for an artist to capture both the public and private character simultaneously,” gallerist Philip Mould is quoted as saying in the press release. “Shank’s sketch uniquely fuses Diana’s glamour with the affecting pathos of her final years. We felt it belonged in a British collection and are delighted to be able to display it in her home city.”