Louis, Charlotte and George are Darling in Official Christening Photos

Official images from Prince Louis’s christening were released tonight, providing our first look at the Cambridges as a family of five.

George, Charlotte, and Louis all look darling; Prince George with his hand in his pocket, Charlotte with a spunky smile, and Louis gazing up (I think) at Kate, while his parents appear utterly delighted.

Here is how the family looked as a family of four in the official portrait from Charlotte’s christening in July 2015. Both children seem to be growing up so quickly!

In the next portrait, we see an absolutely radiant Kate with her youngest son.

It’s the first time we have seen Prince Louis with his eyes open. In all of the photos taken before and after the christening he looked to be blissfully asleep, unaware of the hubbub. This image was taken in the garden at Clarence House after the christening.

UPDATE: The Prince’s eyes are also open, wide open in fact, in a fifth photo the Palace released Monday morning.

This image, also shot outside, was taken by Matt Porteous, who did Prince George’s third birthday photos.

(Our post on those images is here, they are all just wonderful.)

The other photos were shot in the Morning Room at Clarence House, the official London residence of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall. This next picture shows members of the royal family.

Thoughts on that image from People’s story:

In the group shot with all the royal family members, including uncle Prince Harry and aunt Meghan Markle, the typically shy and reserved George flashes a huge smile as he sits on dad Prince William’s lap, while Charlotte sits next to mom Kate Middleton and sweetly gazes at her baby brother and adorably holds his hand.

The largest group photo features both sides of the family. Charlotte is cute as can be, with one hand clasped around her knee and a gaze directed right at the camera. Prince George looks like he is trying to be on his best behavior but getting a little bored with the posing and smiling.

Matt Holyoak is the photographer who shot the photos. More from The Mirror:

Kate and William asked him to do the important job after being impressed with his work when he photographed the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh on their 70th wedding anniversary.

He was given the honour of taking the christening snaps at Clarence House after Louis was baptised in The Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace last Monday.

Here is one of the pictures from the series referenced in the quote. The backdrop is similar to that used for the Cambridge family photo shown above.

If the setting seems familiar, it is because this is the same room where Prince George’s christening pictures were shot by photographer Jason Bell.

Princess Charlotte’s were taken at Sandringham House by Mario Testino.

I do not have the new photos in a hi-resolution format, so I can’t do the photo collages I usually make for special occasions. Here is the best I could come up with, a montage of Prince George at all three christenings.

One of the images made a lovely cover for the new edition of Hello!

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We have a couple of photos we didn’t have time to include in the christening post, so it makes sense to share them here. The first is a look at the gown worn by all three Cambridge children.

From left to right you see Prince George in October 2013, Princess Charlotte in July 2015, and Prince Louis last Monday.

More from The Sun’s story about the gown:

The original was made in 1841 and commissioned by Queen Victoria for her firstborn, Princess Victoria.

It was styled after her own wedding dress, and was made of Spitalfields lace with a Honiton lace overlay. In her diary Queen Victoria described it as: “A white Honiton point lace robe and mantle over white satin.”

Sixty-two babies were christened in the gown. Unfortunately, it became quite fragile over the years, and Lady Louise Windsor was the last to wear it in 2004. Angela Kelly, the Queen’s dressmaker and trusted aide, was put in charge of creating a replica of the silk, satin and lace christening gown. The first royal baby to wear the “new gown” was Louise’s younger brother in 2008, James, Viscount Severn.

Also missing from last Monday’s post, this side by side shot of Prince George at Charlotte’s christening in 2015 and a week ago.

In both photos, you can see the traditional styles Kate has George wearing. On the left, the separates from Amaia Kids seen a week ago, and on the right, the Rachel Riley smocked set worn in 2015.

For our post with information on what the children wore to the christening, click here.

We will be back with another post in a few days; we have updated ID information to share!

LINKAGE:

• a story from The Express is here; The Telegraph’s article is here; The Daily Mail’s piece is here; The Mirror’s story is here
• the People story is here; a Harper’s Bazaar story comparing the christenings of all three children is here; a Town and Country article comparing photos from all three christenings is here
• our original What Kate’s Kids Wore post on the christening is here; our original What Kate Wore post on the christening is here; our original What Meghan Wore post on the christening is here
• our What Kate Wore post on the official photos is here; the What Meghan Wore post on the new photos is here