Cecil Beaton

1 portrait of Cecil Beaton

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Cecil Beaton

by Bill Brandt
bromide print on card mount, 1945
13 1/2 in. x 11 1/2 in. (344 mm x 292 mm)
Purchased, 1982
Photographs Collection
NPG x22404

Sitterback to top

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

Artistback to top

  • Bill Brandt (1904-1983), Photographer. Artist or producer of 120 portraits, Sitter in 34 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Seen with part of the decor that he designed for the West End production of Lady Windermere's Fan. After a successful London run the play was restaged in America, where Beaton joined the cast playing the role of Cecil Graham. Beaton subsequently won Oscars for his costumes and designs for the films of Gigi (1958) and My Fair Lady (1964). Published in Harper's Bazaar, October 1953 to accompany a written profile by Kenneth Tynan.

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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