Vivien Leigh
1 portrait of Vivien Leigh
Angus McBean Photograph. © Harvard Theatre Collection, Harvard University.
Vivien Leigh
by Angus McBean
vintage bromide print, 1952
19 7/8 in. x 15 3/4 in. (505 mm x 400 mm)
Purchased, 1977
Primary Collection
NPG P62
Artistback to top
- Angus McBean (1904-1990), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 283 portraits, Sitter in 79 portraits.
This portraitback to top
McBean was introduced to Vivien Leigh by Ivor Novello and first photographed her in 1937 as part of her campaign to secure the role of Scarlett O'Hara in the film, Gone with the Wind. He went on to photograph her many times over the next thirty years. This double-exposure portrait was taken in the year she played Blanche du Bois in A Streetcar Named Desire, a role for which she won her second Oscar.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Pepper, Terence, Angus McBean Portraits, 2006 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 5 July to 22 October 2006), p. 85 Read entry
This double-exposure portrait is generally acknowledged as being McBean’s most iconic portrait of Leigh from the 1950s. McBean chose it to appear on the cover of his book on Leigh, Vivien: A Love Affair In Camera. He was somewhat perturbed by Laurence Olivier's comment that the portrait was clever in that it showed the two faces of Leigh, one of poise and glamour and the other reflecting her dark side.
Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top
- Starring Vivien Leigh (30 November 2013 - 20 July 2014)
- Angus McBean: Portraits (5 July 2006 - 22 October 2006)
Events of 1952back to top
Current affairs
King George VI is found dead in his bed in Sandringham; he had been suffering from lung cancer. His daughter Elizabeth, who was in Kenya at the time, became Queen, the only monarch not to know the precise moment of her accession as her father was alone when he died. Elizabeth was crowned the following year.Art and science
Samuel Beckett's play, Waiting for Godot is performed for the first time in Paris. The play belongs to the Theatre of the Absurd style, which influenced playwrights such as Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard.Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap opens in London. It is still going.
International
Mau Mau rebels in Kenya rise up against the British colonial administration. The rebellion was sparked by the growing poverty of the native farmers under the rule of white settlers and called for Kenyan independence. The violence of the rebels, who often murdered settlers and loyalists, was met by the indiscriminate suppression by the British Military, who executed hundreds of suspects.Comments back to top
We are currently unable to accept new comments, but any past comments are available to read below.
If you need information from us, please use our Archive enquiry service . Please note that we cannot provide valuations. You can buy a print or greeting card of most illustrated portraits. Select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Buy a Print button. Prices start at around £6 for unframed prints, £16 for framed prints. If you wish to license an image, select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Use this image button, or contact our Rights and Images service. We digitise over 8,000 portraits a year and we cannot guarantee being able to digitise images that are not already scheduled.
Related pages
- Paul Tanqueray: Young in the Twenties
- Fred Daniels: Cinema Portraits
- Vivien Leigh: Cover Star
- In Close Up: Laurence Olivier
- Marilyn Monroe: a British love affair
- The Man Who Shot Garbo
- Curators' Choice: Photographs from the Terence Pepper Gift
- Love Stories
- Love stories: art, passion and tragedy
- The World's Most Photographed
- The Royal Ballet at 75
- Photographic holdings - print and negative collections
- Surreal and Solarised Photographs
- Photographically Illustrated Periodicals
- Portraits of Alec Guinness
- Blow Up: Sixties Photography Exposed
- Shakespeare: Stage and Screen
- Insiders/outsiders
- Icons and Identities: Shakespeare to Winehouse
- Faces of Wales