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Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), Composer

(Edward) Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten

Sitter associated with 111 portraits
Artist of 5 portraits
Born in Lowestoft, Britten was taught by Frank Bridge and won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in 1930. Britten and Pears emigrated to the USA in 1939, returning in 1942. Peter Grimes, the first of Britten's ten operas, was written for Pears, designed by Kenneth Green for the reopening of Sadler's Wells in 1945. Billy Budd (1951) was commissioned for the Festival of Britain and the War Requiem (1962) for the consecration of Coventry Cathedral. Lifelong partners, they started the Aldeburgh Festival in 1948, and in 1972 founded the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies.

List Thumbnail

x15187

Benjamin Britten

by (Edward) Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten
snapshot print, December 1934
NPG x15187

x15188

Benjamin Britten

by Enid Slater
postcard print, 1935-1936
NPG x15188

x15190

Benjamin Britten

by Lennox Berkeley
snapshot print, 1936
NPG x15190

x1751

Benjamin Britten

by Howard Coster
bromide print, 1938
NPG x1751

x1752

Benjamin Britten

by Howard Coster
bromide print, 1938
NPG x1752

x1749

Benjamin Britten

by Howard Coster
bromide print, 1938
NPG x1749

x10469

Benjamin Britten

by Howard Coster
10 x 8 inch film negative, 1938
NPG x10469

x24302

Benjamin Britten

by Howard Coster
10 x 8 inch film negative, 1938
NPG x24302

x76594

Francis Poulenc; Benjamin Britten

by Felix H. Man (Hans Baumann)
bromide print, circa 1941
NPG x76594

x14036

Benjamin Britten

by Cecil Beaton
bromide print on white card mount, 1942
NPG x14036

x40034

Benjamin Britten

by Cecil Beaton
bromide print, 1942
NPG x40034

x15200

Benjamin Britten

by Enid Slater
bromide print, 1944
NPG x15200

x15309

Benjamin Britten

by Howard Coster
half-plate film negative, 1944
NPG x15309

x15204

Benjamin Britten

by Cecil Beaton
bromide print, 1945
NPG x15204

x15205

Benjamin Britten

by Cecil Beaton
bromide print, 1945
NPG x15205

x15202

Benjamin Britten

by Angus McBean
cream-toned bromide print, 1945
NPG x15202

Links
The Britten-Pears Foundation
Category
Music
Groups
Auden group
Classical musicians
Composers
Places
Suffolk
United States