Wallis, Duchess of Windsor; Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor (King Edward VIII)

1 portrait by Cecil Beaton

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© Cecil Beaton / Victoria and Albert Museum, London

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Wallis, Duchess of Windsor; Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor (King Edward VIII)

by Cecil Beaton
bromide print, 2 June 1937
5 1/2 in. x 5 1/4 in. (141 mm x 134 mm)
Purchased, 1984
Primary Collection
NPG P260

Sittersback to top

Artistback to top

  • Cecil Beaton (1904-1980), Photographer, designer and writer. Artist or producer associated with 1113 portraits, Sitter associated with 360 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Edward left England for France immediately after his Abdication speech on 11 December 1936. He and Wallis were married at the Château de Candé on 3 June 1937 by a Church of England vicar acting without the authority of his bishop. Cecil Beaton was invited to take photographs on the day before the wedding but was not asked to stay on for the ceremony itself.

Placesback to top

  • Place made: France (Château de Candé, Touraine, France)

Events of 1937back to top

Current affairs

George VI becomes king. The younger brother of Edward VIII was crowned on the 12th May and the coronation was broadcast to Britain and the Empire on the radio. Edward becomes the Duke of Windsor, although the rank of 'Royal Highness' is not extended to Wallis Simpson.
Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister following Baldwin's retirement.

Art and science

Roland Penrose organises a tour of Picasso's painting Guernica to the UK. The painting, which shows the horrors of the Spanish Civil War, went on display at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in East London

International

Commercial airship travel is brought to an end with the 'Hindenberg Disaster'. The German airship exploded while landing in New Jersey. The radio broadcaster Herbert Morrison's reaction has become legendary: 'Oh, the humanity!'
Japan invades China, killing about 25,000. Japanese Troops committed numerous atrocities against soldiers and civilians in what became known as the 'Rape of Nanking'.

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