An rare image taken by one of the world’s greatest ever portrait photographers is to get a new home in Bermuda.

A limited edition print of Yousuf Karsh’s portrait of artist Georgia O’Keeffe is to be donated to the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art by his widow.

Canadian Mr Karsh, who died in 2002 at the age of 93, achieved international acclaim as a portrait photographer after being commissioned to capture the features of British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1941.

The image, which appeared on the cover of Life magazine, is said to be the most reproduced photographic portrait in history.

Mr Karsh spent the next 50 years photographing scores of dignitaries and celebrities, including Mohammed Ali, the Queen, Ernest Hemingway, Humphrey Bogart and Martin Luther King.

He took the photograph of Mrs O’Keeffe — described as the mother of US Modernism — in 1956.

The photographer and the artist both have links to Bermuda. Mrs O’Keeffe visited the Island in 1933 after a period of illness and returned the following year, when she produced a number of sketches.

Her drawing ‘Banyan Tree Trunk’ is currently on display at Masterworks.

Mr Karsh came to Bermuda in 1948 on vacation with his wife, Estrellita.

“These are the most beautiful Islands, and I wish I could keep awake,” Mr Karsh told The Royal Gazette, adding that the couple were “completely bewitched” by the Bermuda landscape.

Yesterday curator and director Mr Karsh’s estate said: “Estrellita would like to present Mr Karsh’s 1956 portrait of Georgia O’Keeffe to the Masterworks Museum.

“It is in size 16 x 20 signed lower left, and mounted on 22 x 28 archival board.

“When Mr Karsh closed his studio in 1992, his negatives went to the Library and Archives of Canada but they are there for research and study purposes only.

“It was his stipulation that they never be printed from again, so the only prints available are ones in the studio previous to that time.

“The print is from Mrs Karsh’s personal collection and is very beautiful.

“She is pleased it will find such a good home and be appreciated by the people of Bermuda and guests visiting the island.”