Never-Before-Seen 1956 Portrait of King Charles and Sister Princess Anne as Children Unveiled

All aboard the royal throwback portrait train! 

Yesterday, The Royal Collection Trust gave longtime royal fans (like myself) a blast from the past by releasing never-before-seen portraits of the British royal family on their Instagram page. The throwback post includes a grainy black-and-white photo of a young King Charles and Princess Anne. 

Taken in 1956, the picture (photographed by Antony Armstrong-Jones) shows the royal siblings standing in a room full of mirrors. In the photo, the future king is sporting a long-sleeved shirt, shorts and a black tie. Meanwhile, the Princess Royal is wearing a white ruffled dress with a ribbon tied around the waist. 

The slideshow features a previously unreleased photo of the late Queen Elizabeth II holding her newborn baby alongside other women of the royal family. Fans were also treated to a gorgeous snapshot of Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, posing in a beautiful white dress and veil on her wedding day in 1935. Oh, and did I mention that there was a previously unreleased photo of Princess Margaret (snapped in 1949 by Cecil Beaton) donning a stunning white gown adorned with colorful butterflies? 

As it turns out, the royal portraits will be on display at The King’s Gallery (located in Buckingham Palace) as part of a new exhibition called “Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography.” According to the caption of the post, the display “charts the evolution of royal portrait photography from the 1920s to the present day.” In addition, the exhibition includes more than 150 items from the Royal Collection and Royal Archives.