Iconic actress Audrey Hepburn graces The National Portrait Gallery with a photographic collection celebrating her life and works. Today is the last chance for visitors to London to enjoy rare images of the star.

Hepburn strikes a classical pose in 1955. Photo: Hulton ArchiveHepburn strikes a classical pose in 1955. Photo: Hulton Archive

The captivating rise of one of the world’s first truly international stars, Audrey Hepburn, takes the spotlight in one of the biggest photography exhibitions to grace the National Portrait Gallery, in London. Capturing the life of the actress from her early years in the Netherlands to her days as dancer and chorus girl in London’s West End and becoming a stage and screen icon, the exhibition even includes a mesmerising record of her philanthropic work in later life.

Photographs of Hepburn before she was famous, formal portraits and photographs taken on set during the making of some of her most-loved films are brought together in Audrey Hepburn: Portraits of an Icon. Also on show are portraits of Hepburn by some of the leading photographers of the 20th century, including Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, Angus McBean, Irving Penn, Terry O’Neill and Norman Parkinson.

Audrey Hepburn: Portraits of an Icon is the first UK exhibition to be organised with support from the Audrey Hepburn Estate and her sons, Luca Dotti and Sean Hepburn Ferrer. A remarkable selection of rarely seen photographs from their personal collection are featured in the exhibition, ranging from an early photograph of Hepburn as a nine-year-old girl in 1938, to portraits from her last major photo shoot, taken by Steven Meisel in 1991. Many of these have never been seen before in the UK.

A remarkable selection of rarely seen photographs from the family’s personal collection are featured in the exhibition

Highlights from the exhibition include examples of her early work in London as a fashion model for photographs by Antony Beauchamp for the department store Marshall & Snelgrove, and the highly successful Crookes Lacto-Calamine skin-cream campaign, photographed by Angus McBean in 1950. Photographs by Larry Fried, showing Hepburn in her dressing room on Broadway for Gigi (1951); Hepburn captured in Italy at the time of filming War and Peace (1955) by Philippe Halsman and George Daniell; publicity photographs for Funny Face (1957); and Terry O’Neill’s photographs taken during the making of films How to Steal a Million (1966) and Two for the Road (1967), are among the portraits on show, documenting Hepburn’s transformation throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and her key roles on stage and screen.

Also included in the exhibition are vintage magazine covers, from the Picturegoer in 1952 to the front cover of Life magazine featuring Hepburn in Givenchy for her role in Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1961, taken by Howell Conant. Original film stills and ephemera complete the story of one of the world’s most photographed women.

“We are thrilled to be able to support this comprehensive and beautifully curated exhibition dedicated to our mother as it allows me and my brother Sean to grasp fragments of an otherwise unreachable past. The experience is all the more rewarding as the exhibition strives to go behind the scenes and give us rare insights into the making of Audrey Hepburn, from her London debut and her rise to stardom in the 1950s and 1960s, to the last season of her life. She would be honoured to have an exhibition dedicated to her at the National Portrait Gallery. And glad to be back home,” her son, Dotti, said.

Hepburn in Givenchy outfit and Oliver Goldsmith sunglasses, photographed by Douglas Kirkland.Hepburn in Givenchy outfit and Oliver Goldsmith sunglasses, photographed by Douglas Kirkland.

Born in Brussels, Belgium (1929), to a Dutch Baroness and an Anglo-Irish father, Hepburn moved to London from Amsterdam in late 1948 to take up a ballet scholarship at the Rambert Ballet School in Notting Hill. After a number of important stage performances as a chorus girl in the West End, Hepburn made her earliest screen debuts in British films. Her critically acclaimed stage performance in Gigi (1951) introduced Hepburn to American theatre audiences and confirmed her position as a new star.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Hepburn’s career flourished with a string of highly successful roles and she became the first actress to win an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Bafta Award for a single performance (her leading role in Roman Holiday, 1953). Hepburn worked as a Unicef ambassador from 1988 until her death in 1993 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 in recognition of her contribution to the arts and her humanitarian work.

Audrey Hepburn: Portraits of an Icon is co-curated by Terence Pepper and Helen Trompeteler, senior special advisor on photographs and associate curator of photographs at the gallery respectively. The exhibition comes to an end today at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Audrey Hepburn photographed wearing Givenchy by Norman Parkinson, 1955. Photo: Norman Parkinson Ltd, courtesy of Norman Parkinson Archive.Audrey Hepburn photographed wearing Givenchy by Norman Parkinson, 1955. Photo: Norman Parkinson Ltd, courtesy of Norman Parkinson Archive.

Hepburn as Holly Golightly, for Breakfast at Tiffany’s, photographed for Jours de France.Hepburn as Holly Golightly, for Breakfast at Tiffany’s, photographed for Jours de France.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.