See the Rarely-Published Picture of the Late Queen Elizabeth with Her Parents and Sister

The family photo is on the cover of upcoming book by biographer Sally Bedell Smith

Her father called them “us four” to underline their tight family unit at the heart of the British monarchy — and that closeness has rarely been evoked as well as in a picture that’s emerged of the late Queen Elizabeth and her family.

Headed by King George VI and his wife, also Queen Elizabeth, the family was completed by Princess Elizabeth and her sister, Princess Margaret.

The four royals posed for the informal portrait in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle in 1943. Captured by Cecil Beaton, who took many photos of the royal family then and into the Queen’s reign, the picture was chosen for the cover of an upcoming book by Sally Bedell Smith.