Somerset Maugham

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Somerset Maugham

by Ida Kar
2 1/4 inch square film negative, 1958
Purchased, 1999
Photographs Collection
NPG x132976

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Ida Kar (1908-1974), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 1567 portraits, Sitter in 137 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Kar photographed Maugham at the Dorchester hotel on a visit to London from his home on the French Riviera. His essays on Goethe, Chekhov, Henry James and Katherine Mansfield were published in Points of View in the year this photograph was taken.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Freestone, Clare (appreciation) Wright, Karen (appreciation), Ida Kar Bohemian Photographer, 2011 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 10 March to 19 June 2011), p. 115 Read entry

    Maugham qualified as a doctor in 1897, but pursued his passion for writing following the publication of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, in the same year. His play Lady Frederick, staged at the Royal Court in 1907, was his first theatrical success, and his la autobiographical novel Of Human Bondage (1915) became a best-seller. It was followed by other highly praised works, such as The Moon and Sixpence (1919), the satirical Cakes and Ale (1930) and The Razor's Edge (1945). Numerous successful adaptations were derived from Maugham's short stories, including Quartet (1948) and the Alfred Hitchcock film The Secret Agent (1936). Kar photographed Maugham at the Dorchester hotel on a visit to on from his home on the French Riviera. By this time he had gained a reputation as a grand old man of letters, known for his sparse, careful prose. His essays on Goethe, Chekhov, Henry James and Katherine Mansfield were published in Points of View in the year this photograph was taken.

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Events of 1958back to top

Current affairs

Britain's first motorway is built. The Preston bypass (M6) was the first road to be built to official motorway standards, although the M1 (opened in 1959) was the first road to be given official status. The road was opened by the Prime minister, Harold Macmillan, and heralded a new age of mass, high-speed motoring.

Art and science

Michael Bond publishes A Bear Called Paddington, the first Paddington Bear book. This popular character is remembered for being found at Paddington Station by the Brown family, for wearing a floppy hat, duffle coat and Wellington boots, and for his penchant for marmalade sandwiches.
The children's television programme, Blue Peter, is broadcast for the first time.

International

Following the USSR's successful launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite in 1957, America launches its own space agency, NASA. Under pressure from the Soviets' early lead, NASA began research into human spaceflight. The competition between the two superpowers to explore outer space, send humans beyond the Earth's orbit and land on the moon was known as the 'space race'.

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