Cecil Beaton
British, 1904 - 1980
English photographer and stage designer. He began taking photographs at an early age, mainly of his sisters Nancy and Baba. Beaton emulated pictures he saw in fashion magazines, especially those by Baron Adolphe de Meyer and the soft-focus technique used in them. In 1922 he went to Cambridge University to study history and architecture, but he left after three years without graduating. He took an office job, but he continued to photograph, receiving portrait commissions. Diaghilev’s praise of his photographs, particularly the double portrait of Nancy and Baba with Reflection (1924), encouraged him to set up a studio in his home in Sussex Gardens, London. Beaton created lavish decorations and painted his backgrounds himself. He encouraged his subjects to sit in striking poses. In his diary he noted: ‘Till now my pictures have been ordinary attempts to make people look as beautiful as possible, but these are fantastic and amusing’. The friendship and patronage of the Sitwell family introduced him into artistic and avant-garde circles. By 1928 his studio enjoyed a wide reputation.
In 1929 Beaton went to New York, where he was successful as a portrait photographer. After being approached in London by Edna Chase, the editor of American Vogue, he signed a contract with the publishers Condé Nast. At this point he abandoned his small Kodak 3a camera and began using a large format 8×10 view camera. When he returned to London he devoted himself to the production of his first book, The Book of Beauty (London, 1930), containing sketches and drawings as well as photographs. In 1931 he travelled to Hollywood, where he spent some time photographing film stars. Many of his photographs from this period have a surrealist quality and aim at the fantastic. Throughout the 1930s Beaton photographed well-known cultural and society figures. In 1939 he photographed the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in their French residence and made several trips to Spain, Malta, Greece and elsewhere. Despite his relations with the exiled Windsors he was invited to photograph the Queen in 1939, and shortly afterwards he became the official court photographer.
Beaton was commissioned by the Ministry of Information to take photographs of London and British RAF bases during World War II. He produced a series of images of the city destroyed in the bombing raids, but the picture that provoked the strongest emotions was his photograph of a little girl with a bandaged head clutching a toy, Elaine Dunn in the Hospital for Sick Children (1940), which was chosen as a cover for Life magazine. A year later Beaton took part in allied actions in North Africa and the Far East. Although not accustomed to photojournalism, he soon developed his own approach to the subject, and his success marked an important stage in his career. When, towards the end of the war, he was given the opportunity to leave the Front, he flew immediately to New York, where he was still under contract to Vogue, and he returned to fashion photography (see ). The increasing success of Irving Penn and Richard Avedon and new stylistic techniques meant that Beaton’s theatrical approach had become outdated. After his Vogue contract was terminated, he published portraits of important personalities in Harper’s Bazaar.
From the late 1950s and during the 1960s Beaton was involved in work for the theatre and cinema. Having produced costume and set designs for the stage version of My Fair Lady (New York, 1956; London, 1958), he won further success with designs for the films Gigi (1958) and My Fair Lady (1964). During this period he also photographed celebrities of the younger generation. He was knighted in 1971, but his career came to an end after a heart attack in 1974.
Reinhold Misselbeck. "Beaton, Cecil." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T007118 (accessed May 1, 2012).
Person TypeIndividual
American, born Russian, 1912 - 1999
