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David Ball; Angus McBean

2 of 8 portraits of David Ball

© estate of Angus McBean / National Portrait Gallery, London

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David Ball; Angus McBean

by Angus McBean
bromide print, 1952
5 1/2 in. x 7 in. (140 mm x 178 mm)
Purchased, 1992
Photographs Collection
NPG x39304

Sittersback to top

  • David Ball (1926-), Photographer; partner of Angus McBean. Sitter in 8 portraits.
  • Angus McBean (1904-1990), Photographer. Sitter in 79 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 283 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Angus McBean (1904-1990), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 283 portraits, Sitter in 79 portraits.

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. 124 Read entry

    McBean appears again as Neptune on the far right-hand side of this composition entitled Jeux De Photos, while Ball is at top-left, holding a winged camera light. The source for the image was a large coloured engraving by Giovanni Folo Venelo after Bernardine Nucchi's Venus Sur Les Eaux. The credit, which on the original read fecit followed by the name of the engraver, here reads 'Angus McBean faked it.'

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.

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