The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery has acquired a new photo of Beyoncé, ArtNews reports. Shot by photographer Tyler Mitchell for Vogue‘s 2018 September issue, Mitchell’s Beyoncé Vogue photos were the first made by a black photographer to appear on the cover and as part of the cover spread for the famed fashion magazine in its history.
The portrait features the singer in front of a gold drape backdrop. Beyoncé looks stunning, wearing a floral-styled, ornate and pointy headdress and a sparkly Valentino dress. Beyoncé poses with her elbows leaning on a flower-adorned Greek column.
“This particular work brought us closer to Beyoncé’s words, appearing within the magazine’s pages,” the museum’s curator of photographs Leslie Ureña said in a statement. “And showing us more of the historic shoot.”
It is the second image the museum has acquired of Beyoncé. The first is a poster of the singer’s debut solo album, Dangerously in Love, as Buzzfeed notes. It is not currently on display. The museum has not yet revealed when the new acquisition might be on view to the public. They confirmed to ArtNews that it will not immediately be on permanent display.
“A year ago today we broke the flood gates open,” photographer Mitchell wrote in a post on Instagram to mark the occasion. “Since then it was important to spend the whole year running through them making sure every piece of the gate was knocked down. And now I’m glad to share this picture is being acquired into the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection.”
