Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
(1892-1983), Writer and journalistSitter in 29 portraits
As a teenager, West's precocious journalism flourished in the feminist weekly the Freewoman, prompting George Bernard Shaw to praise her for writing 'as brilliantly as ever I could, and much more savagely'. Eight novels include The Fountain Overflows (1957) and The Sunflower, published posthumously, and portraying aspects of her ten-year relationship with the writer H.G. Wells. West's reportage of the Nuremberg trials, The Meaning of Treason (1949), and her cultural study of the Balkan states, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1937), put her at the forefront of political commentary.
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
by E.O. Hoppé
chlorobromide print, 30 January 1923
On display in Room 25 on Floor 2 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG P1696
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
by Wyndham Lewis
pencil, 1932
NPG 5693
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
by Carl Van Vechten
vintage gelatin silver print, 28 May 1934
NPG P1127
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
by Lord Snowdon
vintage bromide print, 9 February 1982
NPG P846
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
by George Charles Beresford
half-plate glass negative, circa 1912
NPG x6611
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
by Yevonde
black and white reprint on card mount, 1929
NPG x131753
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
by Howard Coster
half-plate film negative, 1934
NPG x23917
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
by Cecil Beaton
bromide print on white card mount, 1942
NPG x14241
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
by Yevonde
gelatin silver print, 1950s
NPG x198378
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
by Mark Gerson
bromide print, 1957
NPG x13773
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
by Yevonde
solarised bromide print on card mount, April 1961
NPG x27348
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
by Yevonde
solarised bromide print on card mount, April 1961
NPG x29833
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
by Walter Bird
bromide print on card mount, 14 February 1964
NPG x165793
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
by J.S. Lewinski
bromide print on card mount, 1968
NPG x13753
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
by Mayotte Magnus
bromide print, February 1977
NPG x18642
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
after Wyndham Lewis
lithograph, 1932
NPG D32960
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
after Yevonde
colour offset lithographic cigarette card, 1937
On display at The Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
NPG D42424
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
by Howard Coster
half-plate film negative, 1934
NPG x23918
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
by Howard Coster
half-plate film negative, 1934
NPG x23919
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Andrews (née Fairfield))
by Howard Coster
half-plate film negative, 1934
NPG x23920
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