Portraits by Pietro Annigoni

Margaret Rawlings, actress, 1951.

Pietro Annigoni (June 7, 1910, Milan – October 28, 1988, Florence), Italian painter, much influenced by the artists of the Italian Renaissance, who became internationally famous for his 1954-5 portrait of the young Queen Elizabeth II.

Only really familiar with the cool and rather distant portraits he did of the queen and her sister, Princess Margaret - a distance perhaps to be expected, considering the subjects - I've been pleased to find a depth of personality and humanity in much of Annigoni's other work.

"Mr. Rydy", 1949.