Diana Wynyard as Eliza Doolittle in 'Pygmalion'

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Angus McBean Photograph. © Harvard Theatre Collection, Harvard University.

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Diana Wynyard as Eliza Doolittle in 'Pygmalion'

by Angus McBean
vintage bromide print, 1937
4 3/8 in. x 6 1/8 in. (110 mm x 155 mm) image size
Purchased, 2008
Photographs Collection
NPG Ax183853

Sitterback to top

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. 37 Read entry

    Wynyard made her London stage debut in 1925, aged nineteen, with a walk-on part. For the next four years she acted outside London before returning to the capital for Walter Hackett's Sorry You've Been Troubled (1929). Several significant parts followed and she quickly established her reputation as a leading lady in the West End. In 1933 she made three Hollywood films, including Cavalcade, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. By 1937 McBean had established an arrangement to photograph all Old Vic productions, then under the direction of Lillian Bayliss. Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, which also featured Robert Morley as Professor Higgins, opened in September and was one of the few non-Shakespearian plays put on there. The following year McBean produced two 'Surrealised Portraits' of Wynyard. With the first, published in February, he began his 'Sandscapes' series, in which he produced a half-length figure seemingly buried in sand. In 1948 Wynyard was to transform her career, lifting it to a higher plane as a classical actress by joining the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and playing numerous leading Shakespearian roles for them between 1948 and 1952.

Events of 1937back to top

Current affairs

George VI becomes king. The younger brother of Edward VIII was crowned on the 12th May and the coronation was broadcast to Britain and the Empire on the radio. Edward becomes the Duke of Windsor, although the rank of 'Royal Highness' is not extended to Wallis Simpson.
Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister following Baldwin's retirement.

Art and science

Roland Penrose organises a tour of Picasso's painting Guernica to the UK. The painting, which shows the horrors of the Spanish Civil War, went on display at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in East London

International

Commercial airship travel is brought to an end with the 'Hindenberg Disaster'. The German airship exploded while landing in New Jersey. The radio broadcaster Herbert Morrison's reaction has become legendary: 'Oh, the humanity!'
Japan invades China, killing about 25,000. Japanese Troops committed numerous atrocities against soldiers and civilians in what became known as the 'Rape of Nanking'.

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