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The Beatles (John Lennon; Paul McCartney; George Harrison; Ringo Starr)

1 of 126 portraits matching these criteria:

- subject matching 'Album and music covers'

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Photograph Robert Whitaker

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The Beatles (John Lennon; Paul McCartney; George Harrison; Ringo Starr)

by Robert Whitaker
cibachrome print, 1966
18 in. x 16 in. (457 mm x 407 mm)
Purchased, 1999
Primary Collection
NPG P733

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Artistback to top

  • Robert Whitaker (1939-2011), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 17 portraits, Sitter in 1 portrait.

This portraitback to top

This notorious image was famously used on the cover of The Beatles American album Yesterday and Today before being rapidly withdrawn. Whitaker had never intended it as a cover but part of a more elaborate composition using props from Salvador Dali's basement. In Britain it appeared full-page in the NME of June 3 1966 to advertise the 10 June release of Paperback Writer.

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Events of 1966back to top

Current affairs

The English football team wins against West Germany at the World Cup Final in Wembley.
144 people, including 116 children, die in the Aberfan disaster when a colliery waste tip slides down a mountain in Wales.
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are sentence to life imprisonment for the brutal Moors Murders.

Art and science

Tom Stoppard's first play Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead premiers. This absurdist play uses two minor characters from Hamlet to explore the existential themes of free will versus determinism and the futility of language.
Seamus Heany publishes his first volume of poems, Death of a Naturalist.

International

The Cultural Revolution is launched in China in order to bring Chinese culture and society in line with communist ideals. It was also, however, an attempt by Mao Zedong to regain control of the country after the mistakes of the Great Leap Forward.
Archbishop of Canterbury, Arthur Michael Ramsey meets Pope Paul VI, the first official meeting between the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches for 400 years.

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