Kate braves snow and ice in high heels as she visits National Portrait Gallery for Victorian exhibition

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Tom Powell28 February 2018

The Duchess of Cambridge braved heavy snow and freezing temperatures as she visited an exhibition she helped curate at the National Portrait Gallery in central London.

Kate, who is due to give birth to her third child in April, wore an Orla Kiely dress and suede heels as she carefully traversed the icy ground on Wednesday evening.

The history of art graduate has been a patron of the gallery since 2012. She wrote several captions for the images at the exhibition Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography.

In a foreword to the exhibition, Kate wrote: "This period in the history of photography has long interested me.

"As a student at the University of St Andrews, I chose it as the subject of my undergraduate thesis and photographs of children in particular, which feature predominantly within the exhibition, are of real interest to me."

The Duchess of Cambridge attended the Victorian photography exhibition which she helped curate at the National Portrait Gallery
AP

But unfortunately her dissertation is nowhere to be found - lost in the family paperwork.

Exhibition curator Dr Phillip Prodger said: "She was very self deprecating about that, and she did explain to me that somewhere in her family archives she has stashed away her undergraduate thesis, and there was a moment when she asked her family if she couldn't retrieve it, but no one could find the document."

After touring the exhibition, she enjoyed a reception, meeting guests including staff who have worked on the collection.

The display will show together for the first time portraits by influential artists Oscar Rejlander, Lewis Carroll, Julia Margaret Cameron and Lady Clementina Hawarden.

An enthusiastic amateur photographer herself, Kate has released photographs of her own children to mark the milestones in their lives, including George's first day at nursery and Charlotte's first birthday.

It was the second royal engagement of the day for Kate, who earlier attended a forum with her husband the Duke of Cambridge, Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle to celebrate the work of the Royal Foundation.

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