Diana, Princess of Wales
- Artist: Bryan Organ
- Date: 1981
- Medium: acrylic on canvas
- Dimensions: 70 in. x 50 in. (1778 mm x 1270 mm)
- Portrays: Diana, Princess of Wales
- Museum: The National Portrait Gallery
- Collection record: The National Portrait Gallery website
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About this artwork
In this painting you see Lady Diana Spencer standing in the bright Yellow Drawing Room of Buckingham Palace. The canvas is large – roughly 70 by 50 inches – and painted with acrylics on stretched linen. She is dressed in a simple, straight‑cut trousers set over her dress, a choice that made headlines when it first appeared. Organ’s brushwork gives her face an open, almost casual look, while the room’s white walls and subtle window light frame her simply.
The artist finished the work quickly after the National Portrait Gallery commissioned it to mark her engagement to Prince Charles in 1981. A few days later the painting was unveiled; a protestor even slashed the canvas, but restoration brought it back to display in November that year. This portrait captured an early moment of what would become an icon whose life and untimely death in 1997 left the world still listening.
See it in person
Diana, Princess of Wales is in the collection of The National Portrait Gallery at St Martin's Place, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
