Lord Snowdon's Final Portrait Session with Agatha Christie in 1974

In June 1974, Lord Snowdon, the royal photographer and brother-in-law of Queen Elizabeth II, traveled to Wallingford, a town on the Thames just south of Oxford, to photograph Agatha Christie at Winterbrook House, the home she shared with her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan. Snowdon shot both black-and-white and color images. For one portrait, he chose a domestic interior reminiscent of Miss Marple: a small study with a writing desk used for correspondence. Christie, then 83, wore a petrol-blue dress, a red necklace, and blue slippers. She sat sideways, one hand on the desk, the other gripping the chair back, looking directly at the camera with a slightly questioning, almost amused expression. The side lighting evoked a Vermeer composition. This would be her last official photographic session.