Cecil Beaton: The Royal Portraits

by Roy Strong, Cecil Beaton

Offers five decades of Beaton's Royal portraits, capturing, in many never-before-seen photographs, the history, romance, and majestic grandeur of royalty, as well as the human side of the Royal Family

Genres: Royalty

230 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1988

About the author

Sir Roy Colin Strong FRSL (23 August 1935 - ) is an English art historian, museum curator, writer, broadcaster and landscape designer.

He has been director of both the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He was knighted in 1983.

Reviews

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roy Strong (b. 1935), former director of the Victoria and Albert Museum and a close friend of the photographer Sir Cecil Beaton (1904-1980), put together this coffee table book of photographs that Beaton had taken of the royal family during the middle of the twentieth century, combining biographical information about the sitters with candid comments about them from Beaton’s own diary.

Some of the photographs are works of art, as Beaton, a lover of classic portraiture as well as Hollywood glamour, certainly intended. Beaton and Elisabeth the Queen Mother (1900-2002) seem to have gotten on especially well, and the many portraits of her seem to reflect a sympathetic connection between photographer and subject.

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The respected and highly qualified Roy Strong takes on this task of explaining and showcasing the works by Cecil Beaton. Beaton was a remarkable photographer and was given unbelievable access to the Royal Family, and Strong does his work justice. The text is easy to read and, obviously, the portraits are stunning.

[Tollula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved reading about Beaton’s devotion to the royal family and the fairytale he created with his photographs.

[Alessandro · Rating 5 out of 5]

So beautiful. So, so beautiful.

[Sarah Kester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cecil Beaton's portraits of the royal family are so beautiful. The young Princess Margaret was so gorgeous and the Queen Mother looked just like something out of a fairytale.