Photographer Patrick Demarchelier died on Thursday March 31, 2022, his family announced on Instagram.
An outstanding portrait painter, the Frenchman was acclaimed by the biggest fashion magazines from
Harper's Bazaar
to
Vogue
, including
Vanity Fair
and
Allure
, before being removed from the covers in 2018 following accusations of sexual harassment. revealed by the Boston Globe.
Punctuated by iconic headlines, his long career was marked by a royal encounter.
In 1986, the photographer was invited to Highgrove by young Lady Di, 25 at the time, who was staying with her sons Princes Harry and William in the Gloucestershire mansion.
In the pages of
Vogue
, one of his shots representing a model, a photo of a laughing little boy in his pocket caught his eye.
“The boy was actually my son, and Diana, perhaps because of her little boys, liked this photo so much that she got in touch with me.
We became friends”, he will relate later.
The cliché that seals this friendship will remain etched in the annals.
Princely picture
In 1990, the British edition of
Vogue
commissioned Patrick Demarchelier to paint a portrait of Lady Di for its cover.
The princess with voluminous hair and long on the neck then suffers from an outdated look.
In a studio in the London district of Shoreditch, the photographer surrounds himself with make-up artist Mary Greenwell and hairdresser Sam McKnight to breathe new life into him.
The latter shortens his cut, even cheats a little by reducing it under his crown.
This meeting gives birth to a spontaneous and elegant portrait in which the Princess of Wales, simply dressed in a strapless dress, accessorized with her crown and a row of pearls, appears with an unprecedented freshness.
The cult photo is estimated at £20 to 30,000 (35,600 euros today) by Sotheby'
made in Britain
, thirty years later.
Read alsoLady Diana and the haircut that changed everything
Thanks to this photo, Patrick Demarchelier becomes the official photographer of Diana Spencer, the first non-British to take on the role.
Posing on her the same look as on top models like Christy Turlington or Claudia Schiffer, he will offer the princess her most elegant images.
Shots that will contribute to dusting off the genre of monarchical photography.
And to build the Lady Di legend.