Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham in 'Great Expectations'

1 portrait of Martita Hunt

© Cecil Beaton Archive / Condé Nast

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Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham in 'Great Expectations'

by Cecil Beaton
bromide print on white card mount, 1945
9 1/2 in. x 7 1/2 in. (239 mm x 189 mm)
Given by Cecil Beaton, 1968
Photographs Collection
NPG x14113

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Cecil Beaton (1904-1980), Photographer, designer and writer. Artist or producer associated with 1114 portraits, Sitter associated with 360 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Beaton took this still on the set of David Lean's 1946 award-winning production of Great Expections, starring Martita Hunt in the role of Miss Havisham. Sharing Dickens's eye for the comic groteseque, Beaton's image of the actress playing the part of the vengeful, jilted, aging bride, immured by choice within the cobwebbed remains of her own nuptials, resonates with the inherent horror of Dickens's invention.

Placesback to top

  • Place made and portrayed: Unknown Place (on set of 'Great Expectations')

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Events of 1945back to top

Current affairs

Despite Churchill's popularity during, and indeed after, the War, Clement Attlee wins a landslide Labour victory in the general election. Labour's success was due to its promise of a better society through the Welfare state, and was demonstrative of the public's desire for a new and better post-War society.

Art and science

Noel Coward's Brief Encounter is released. The film, based on Coward's play, Still Life, is about the love affair between two married people who meet at a railway station. Conscious of the risk of being caught the couple decide to break off their relationship to protect their marriages.
George Orwell publishes his satirical novel Animal Farm, as an allegorical critique of Soviet Totalitarianism.

International

A war on two fronts finally proves too much for Germany as allied forces push from the East and West. On the 30th April Hitler committed suicide and Germany soon surrendered to Soviet troops. Victory in Europe was announced on the 8th May. War in the Pacific continued until America dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing 214,000 people, and ending the war with Japan.

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