Paul and Family donate prints by Linda McCartney to the V&A

Today, the V&A announces a major gift of 63 photographs by Linda McCartney, gifted by Paul and his family. The photographs trace Linda McCartney’s career across four decades, from the 1960s to the 1990s. The collection encompasses portraits of music legends The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix, as well as pictures of flora and fauna, and intimate personal portraits, including the McCartney family on holiday. The gift marks the first time that a selection of Linda McCartney’s original Polaroids have ever been made available to the public.

Linda McCartney embraced myriad photographic processes and techniques, and the gift includes lithographs, bromide prints, cyanotype prints, platinum prints, photogravures, hand painted prints, contact sheets and Polaroids. This significant gift dramatically increases the V&A’s existing Linda McCartney holdings, which include Self Portrait in Francis Bacon’s Studio and Horse in Landscape, as well as two portraits of Yoko Ono. These pictures join the National Collection of the Art of Photography, held at the V&A. It is one of the largest and most important collections of historic and contemporary photographs in the world.

A selection of Linda McCartney’s photographs will go on display in the V&A’s new Photography Centre, opening to the public on 12th October 2018.