Rare photos of Freddie Mercury smiling in his garden clicked just days before his death by partner Jim Hutton resurface
Some beautiful photographs of Freddie Mercury have resurfaced, showing the Queen legend smiling at his home just weeks before he died. The images, captured by his partner Jim Hutton in August 1991, depict a powerful contrast to photos from his last official public appearance at the 1990 BRIT Awards.
The pictures encapsulate everything the Queen frontman loved most, including his beloved Garden Lodge at 1 Logan Place in Kensington, London. The perfectly tended garden was in full bloom in the month of August, with one of Freddie's cats by his side.
Despite being seriously ill at the time, Freddie's hair is styled and he is smiling, while being dressed impeccably in blue trousers and a playful floral shirt, the Express reported. The gorgeous shots re-emerged after popular fan site Freddiemercuryclub shared them in light of his upcoming birthday September 5.
Alongside the images, they shared a ringing excerpt from Jim Hutton's book 'Mercury and Me'. "That summer Freddie posed for a camera for the very last time - mine," Hutton wrote. "It happened like this. I was out in the garden photographing some of the flowers in full bloom and Freddie walked towards me. I trained the lens on - he wanted to move back a bit so it wasn't a close-up. Then he posed while I took four pictures, and he managed a smile for each."
"He was so pale and drawn that he knew he didn't look his best, but it didn't matter a bit; of all the pictures I have of Freddie, those are the ones I love most," he added. That said, the images were captured on August 28, 1991, just three months before he tragically passed away.
The legendary singer-songwriter was bedridden and in excruciating pain by the end of his life, with friends and family keeping constant vigil. At the time of his death on November 24 that year, his close friend Dave Clarke was by his bedside.
These images of Freddie are a heartwarming bookmark to his life away from the paparazzi. While he may have enjoyed being in the spotlight, he was equally fond of spending time at home.