Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham in 'Great Expectations'
1 portrait of Martita Hunt
© Cecil Beaton Archive / Condé Nast
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
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.
Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top
- Charles Dickens: Life and Legacy (24 October 2011 - 22 April 2012)
Subjects & Themesback 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.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
- The World's Most Photographed
- The Royal Ballet at 75
- Britain 1960-1990
- Cecil Beaton Drawings
- Centenaries and Centenarians
- Handlist of names in the Reference Collection
- Photographic holdings - print and negative collections
- Learn more
- Mick Jagger: Young in the 60s
- In Close Up: Laurence Olivier
- Marilyn Monroe: a British love affair
- Women Poets and Photography, 1860–1970
- Photography: a living art - then and now
- Cecil Beaton’s Bright Young Things
- Britain and the formation of the UAE
- Love Stories
- Icons and Identities: Shakespeare to Winehouse
- Love stories: art, passion and tragedy
- Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury: inventing life
- Bill Brandt: Portraits 1982
- Beatles to Bowie: the 60s exposed
- Picturing friendship