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Portraits
An exquisite book that celebrates the masterful and evocative portraits created by one of the world’s most famous twentieth-century photographers
Sir Cecil Beaton (1904–1980) was one of the most renowned photographers of his generation. A major contributor to Vogue and Vanity Fair in Britain, France, and America, Beaton captured for posterity such admired subjects as artists Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol, and Richard Avedon; actresses Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and Greta Garbo; statesmen and politicians Winston Churchill and Robert Kennedy; and, of course, Britain’s Royal Family. This sumptuously illustrated book—published on the centenary of Beaton’s birth—brings together many of his evocative portraits in celebration of his remarkable life and work.
Gifted in an extraordinary range of fields, Beaton was noted for his flamboyant sense of style. His portraits, fashion photographs, book jacket designs, war reportage, designs for theater and film, and diaries mark him as one of the first international multi-media artists. This book features an illustrated essay discussing the wide range of the photographer’s career as well as a portfolio of 160 beautiful reproductions of his most famous portraits and an extended illustrated chronology.
Portraits is an exciting and comprehensive look at a tour-de-force photographer and is an essential book for anyone interested in photography, fashion, or twentieth-century style and design.
Sir Cecil Beaton (1904–1980) was one of the most renowned photographers of his generation. A major contributor to Vogue and Vanity Fair in Britain, France, and America, Beaton captured for posterity such admired subjects as artists Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol, and Richard Avedon; actresses Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and Greta Garbo; statesmen and politicians Winston Churchill and Robert Kennedy; and, of course, Britain’s Royal Family. This sumptuously illustrated book—published on the centenary of Beaton’s birth—brings together many of his evocative portraits in celebration of his remarkable life and work.
Gifted in an extraordinary range of fields, Beaton was noted for his flamboyant sense of style. His portraits, fashion photographs, book jacket designs, war reportage, designs for theater and film, and diaries mark him as one of the first international multi-media artists. This book features an illustrated essay discussing the wide range of the photographer’s career as well as a portfolio of 160 beautiful reproductions of his most famous portraits and an extended illustrated chronology.
Portraits is an exciting and comprehensive look at a tour-de-force photographer and is an essential book for anyone interested in photography, fashion, or twentieth-century style and design.
- GenresPhotographyArtNonfiction
240 pages, Hardcover
First published February 5, 2004
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About the author
Cecil Beaton
174 books44 followersPeople noted sets and costumes of British photographer, diarist, and theatrical designer Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton for
My Fair Lady
on stage in 1956 and on film in 1964.
Cecil Beaton first styled his sisters decadently. His unique flair for elegance and fantasy led him to the most successful and influential portrait and fashion of the 20th century. From Adolf de Meyer, baron, and Edward Jean Steichen as sources of inspiration, he nevertheless developed all his own style. He worked for Vogue for more than a quarter-century and also as court official to the royal family in 1937. A constant innovator, Beaton worked for five decades to captivate some figures of his time from Edith Sitwell to the Rolling Stones, Greta Garbo, Jean Cocteau, and Marilyn Monroe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_B...
Cecil Beaton first styled his sisters decadently. His unique flair for elegance and fantasy led him to the most successful and influential portrait and fashion of the 20th century. From Adolf de Meyer, baron, and Edward Jean Steichen as sources of inspiration, he nevertheless developed all his own style. He worked for Vogue for more than a quarter-century and also as court official to the royal family in 1937. A constant innovator, Beaton worked for five decades to captivate some figures of his time from Edith Sitwell to the Rolling Stones, Greta Garbo, Jean Cocteau, and Marilyn Monroe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_B...
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 28, 2012
In 1928 Cecil Beaton declared that 'beauty' was 'the most important word in the dictionary' and as far as his photographs went he lived by this maxim.
Roy Strong in his introductory essay 'Beaton Portraits 1928-1968' states that when he was appointed the National Portrait Gallery's Director at the age of 31 his two main aims were to get the Gallery to acknowledge photography and to accept that portraits of living celebrities should adorn the Gallery's walls, something that had been forbidden to that date.
In mounting an exhibition of Cecil Beaton's work soon after his appointment he immediately achieved both his aims and the 150 photographs in this book are a follow-up in that they accompanied a further exhibition of Beaton's work in 2004.
In his own words Beaton believed that he was 'intensely individual' and the photographs within these pages certainly support that view. He was something of a surrealist and acknowledgement of that genre shines through in many of his portraits; Coco Chanel with a flowering growth coming out of the top of her head, Edith Sitwell asleep as if in a sarcophegus and Orson Welles clutching a skull and a decapitated head of a model. And there is a portrait of the surrealist master himself, Salvador Dale, complete with his muse Gala; perhaps not surprisingly Salvador carries a rapier and Gala wears a fencing mask!
There are, of course, more traditional photographs; Fred and Adele Astaire looking very debonair, a sultry looking Nancy Cunard (a particular heroine of mine), Gary Cooper looking far more cool anc collected than in 'High Noon' and Johnny Weissmuller on the set of 'Tarzan'. And there are many, many more interesting portraits.
All the photographs have the unmistakeable stamp of the genius that was Cecil Beaton and the essays by Strong, Pepper and Conrad all add to the enjoyment of the book.
Roy Strong in his introductory essay 'Beaton Portraits 1928-1968' states that when he was appointed the National Portrait Gallery's Director at the age of 31 his two main aims were to get the Gallery to acknowledge photography and to accept that portraits of living celebrities should adorn the Gallery's walls, something that had been forbidden to that date.
In mounting an exhibition of Cecil Beaton's work soon after his appointment he immediately achieved both his aims and the 150 photographs in this book are a follow-up in that they accompanied a further exhibition of Beaton's work in 2004.
In his own words Beaton believed that he was 'intensely individual' and the photographs within these pages certainly support that view. He was something of a surrealist and acknowledgement of that genre shines through in many of his portraits; Coco Chanel with a flowering growth coming out of the top of her head, Edith Sitwell asleep as if in a sarcophegus and Orson Welles clutching a skull and a decapitated head of a model. And there is a portrait of the surrealist master himself, Salvador Dale, complete with his muse Gala; perhaps not surprisingly Salvador carries a rapier and Gala wears a fencing mask!
There are, of course, more traditional photographs; Fred and Adele Astaire looking very debonair, a sultry looking Nancy Cunard (a particular heroine of mine), Gary Cooper looking far more cool anc collected than in 'High Noon' and Johnny Weissmuller on the set of 'Tarzan'. And there are many, many more interesting portraits.
All the photographs have the unmistakeable stamp of the genius that was Cecil Beaton and the essays by Strong, Pepper and Conrad all add to the enjoyment of the book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review