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Angus McBean

10 of 56 portraits matching these criteria:

- subject matching 'Shells, fossils and minerals'

© estate of Angus McBean / National Portrait Gallery, London

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Angus McBean

by Angus McBean
bromide print, 1951
11 7/8 in. x 16 in. (303 mm x 405 mm)
Purchased, 2001
Primary Collection
NPG P936

Sitterback to top

  • Angus McBean (1904-1990), Photographer. Sitter in 79 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 283 portraits.

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. 123 Read entry

    McBean repeated the nautical theme the following year by depicting himself in a striped Edwardian swimming costume while photographing his nascent collection of bathing-beauty figurines, arranged with shells on a mound of sand. First manufactured in the early 1900s, these tiny bisque statues became very popular during the art-deco period of the 1920s and 1930s, and were to reappear on later cards. McBean noted that this was 'the first of my "dollies" Christmas cards ... my friend Diana Churchill had them under a bell-jar. I went to a costumier's shop and hired a period bathing costume and a period camera. They said "the last person who wore that bathing costume was Gracie Fields".'

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Events of 1951back to top

Current affairs

The Conservative Party wins the general election and Winston Churchill returns for a second term as prime minister.

Art and science

On the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Festival of Britain is held as a nationwide celebration of British culture, and as an impetus for post-war regeneration. As well as various art, science and industrial exhibitions and events, a major regeneration project was initiated for the South Bank area of London under the directorship of the architect, Hugh Casson.

International

Libya declares its sovereignty from Italian rule, becoming the first independent state to be created by the UN.
At the Treaty of San Francisco, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan, officially ending the Pacific War - the last battleground of the Second World War.

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