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Noël Coward

© William Hustler and Georgina Hustler / National Portrait Gallery, London

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Noël Coward

by Dorothy Wilding
chlorobromide print, 1930
11 7/8 in. x 9 1/2 in. (301 mm x 241 mm)
Given by the photographer's sister, Susan Morton, 1976
Photographs Collection
NPG x6917

Sitterback to top

  • Sir Noël Coward (1899-1973), Actor, playwright and composer. Sitter associated with 117 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Dorothy Wilding (1893-1976), Photographer. Artist associated with 2177 portraits, Sitter in 30 portraits.

This portraitback to top

As role-model for a post-war generation, Coward's image, by 1930, was sharply focused and elegantly accessorized. It wss the product of a breath-taking run of success, culminating in Private Lives (1930) and Cavalcade (1931) - productions which made him the highest-earning author in the western world.

Placesback to top

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1930back to top

Current affairs

Amy Johnson is the first woman to fly solo to Australia. She flew the 11,000 miles from Croydon to Darwin in a De Havilland Gipsy Moth named Jason and won the Harmon Trophy as well as a CBE for her achievement. She went on to break a number of other flying records, and died while serving in the Air Transport Auxiliary in 1941.

Art and science

Noel Coward's play, Private Lives is first performed. The original run starred Gertrude Lawrence and Laurence Olivier as well as Coward himself. Private Lives became Coward's most enduringly successful play.

International

Gandhi leads the Salt March. The march to the coast was a direct protest against the British monopoly on the sale of salt and inspired hordes of Indians to follow him and adopt his methods of Satyagraha (non-violent resistance to the British rule of India).
Stalin orders the 'liquidation of the kulaks (wealthy farmers) as a class' in a violent attempt to centralise control of agriculture and collectivise farming.

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