Bryan Organ

Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (1930-2002) was the youngest daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and the only sibling of Queen Elizabeth II. She married the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1960, but they divorced in 1978.

As the first royal portrait in a modern style, Organ’s painting broke with tradition and was highly controversial at the time. The portrait was commissioned by Lincoln’s Inn as Princess Margaret was their Honorary Treasurer. It was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in August 1970 on her 40th birthday and received massive coverage in the press and attracted huge crowds of visitors. Princess Margaret later declared it to be the only portrait of her "which truly captured her spirit and her way of life, and was therefore the most favoured" (Under Treasurer of Lincoln’s Inn).