Dame Maggie Smith portrait in new exhibition

It has been announced that a Dame Maggie Smith (Professor McGonagall) portrait, taken by renowned photographer Lord Snowdon, will be displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

The portrait of Dame Maggie Smith shows her in a relaxed, rehearsal pose:

Highlights include from 1978 actor Terence Stamp dramatically clothed up to his neck in a cape and Dame Maggie Smith photographed with a cigarette and script in hand rehearsing the title role in Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler for Ingmar Bergman in 1970.

The exhibition, which is called Snowdon: A Life in View, will showcase Snowdon’s work from the 1950s to the 1990s. During his career Snowdon has photographed many well-known actors, writers, musicians, artists, and much more. His portraits include another Potter actor, John Hurt (Garrick Ollivander), as well as Dame Maggie Smith:

Curated in close consultation with the photographer’s daughter Frances von Hofmannsthal, the display includes over 30 black-and-white portraits taken throughout his expansive and influential career.

When he started photographing in the early 1950s Snowdon focused on theatre, fashion, and society subjects and began a six-decade career with British Vogue. In 1960, he married Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II, in the first globally televised royal wedding. In the early 1960s Snowdon worked with [t]he Sunday Times Magazine on a range of documentary subjects from mental health to loneliness.

Since then Snowdon has photographed a vast range of cultural figures and the display includes portraits of actors such as Dame Maggie Smith, John Hurt and Julie Christie.

The exhibition is open now and will run until June 21, 2015. Entry to the exhibition is free.

Find out more about the National Portrait Gallery here.

Will you be going to see the exhibition? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.