Queen Elizabeth II photograph collection comes to V&A

A major exhibition of photographs of Queen Elizabeth II is scheduled to come to the Victoria & Albert (V&A) museum in February, organisers have announced.

The Queen by Cecil Beaton commences at the V&A on Wednesday February 8th and explores the extensive back catalogue of Cecil Beaton - the current monarch's favourite photographer for more than 40 years.

The exhibition may be of interest to local or international visitors staying in central London hotels who are keen to take in some culture and arts during a break in the capital.

Launched as part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, the exhibition will feature photographs of the Queen, giving the general public a rare glimpse into the private and public life of the reigning monarch.

Among the pictures on show will include images of the Queen in her younger days when she was a princess and portraits of her with her sister the late Princess Margaret and the late Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother.

The exhibition will also feature images of the then Princess Elizabeth relaxing at home with her husband and young family.

Images of the Queen in relaxed, less formal settings are juxtaposed with images of the monarch on high-profile state functions.

Attendees will also have the opportunity to view some of Beaton's rarely seen photographs, as well as diaries and personal scrapbooks.

The exhibition is scheduled to go on at the V&A Museum until Sunday April 22nd and will be open on Mondays to Thursdays, as well as Saturdays and Sundays between 10:00 GMT and 17:45 GMT and on Fridays between 10:00 GMT and 22:00 GMT.

Cecil Beaton was born in 1904 and died in 1980. For more than 40 years starting from 1939, he was the Queen's most favoured royal photographer and noted for capturing some of the most intimate and iconic images of the Queen ever seen.

Beaton covered the Queen's coronation in 1953 and was chosen to take the first images of Prince Charles as a baby.