Editor's Picks

Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) two breaching in evening light, Moray Firth

Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) two breaching in evening light, Moray Firth, Inverness-shire, Scotland, UK, August, sequence 2/2. Photographer quote: 'A day of overcast cloud cleared in the last ten minutes of sunset spilling golden light through a small gap between the cloud base and hill top. A group of dolphins seized the moment and performed a perfect synchronized leap in the low warm sunlight. And I smiled, sighed with relief, and went home happy!' Did you know? The bottle nose dolphins in the Moray Firth are said to be worth more than £4m to the Inverness economy through tourism revenue.

Metropolitan Music Hall, Edgware Road

The Metropolitan Music Hall, 207 Edgware Road London - a very fine Music Hall which was sadly demolished in 1963 to allow the building of a flyover for the A40. Formerly an inn called the White Lion public house, the theatre was re-built in 1862 and opened under the new name of the Metropolitan Music Hall two years later. Re-built again in 1897 by Frank Matcham. Photograph by Heinz Zinram

© Mary Evans Picture Library 2015 - https://copyrighthub.org/s0/hub1/creation/maryevans/MaryEvansPictureID/10283546

Queen Elizabeth II by Pietro Annigoni in the ILN

Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and Head of the Commonwealth (born 1926), by Pietro Annigoni 1953.
Pietro Annigoni (7 June 1910 to 28 October 1988) was an Italian portrait and fresco painter, who became world famous after painting Queen Elizabeth II in 1956.
His work bore the influence of Italian Renaissance portraiture, and was in contrast to the modernist and post-modernist artistic styles that dominated the middle and late twentieth century. He was known for his romantic portrayal of the young Queen Elizabeth II in 1956, as well as for his portraits of Pope John XXIII, US Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, the Shah and Empress of Iran, Princess Margaret and several other members of the British royal family.
Pietro Annigoni was chosen by TIME magazine to paint President of the United States John F. Kennedy for the (January 5) 1962 Person of the Year cover. The result was perhaps his worst portrait as Kennedy would not sit still and Annigoni had no time or inclination to satisfy Time magazine. Other TIME magazine covers that featured portraits by Annigoni were the issues of October 5, 1962 (Pope John XXIII), November 1, 1963 (Ludwig Erhard), and April 12, 1968 (Lyndon B. Johnson).
Other subjects around the world that Annigoni painted include HRH Prince Phillip and several other members of the House of Windsor as well as the shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo, Florentine author Luigi Ugolini, ballet legend Dame Margot Fonteyn, British actress Julie Andrews, Russian ballet star Rudolf Nureyev, American actress and poet Vanna Bonta as a girl, and the Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur. An outspoken artist who did not refrain from iconoclasm toward his perception of passing or superficial social trends, Annigoni wrote essays challenging modern art that disregarded the basic ability to draw. He alienated critics, who claimed his art was too representational, discounting the unique dramatic signature the artist brought to Renaissance tradition.

© Mary Evans Picture Library 2015 - https://copyrighthub.org/s0/hub1/creation/maryevans/MaryEvansPictureID/10511403