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Cecil Beaton

27 of 360 portraits of Cecil Beaton

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Cecil Beaton

by Cecil Beaton
bromide print on card mount, 1920s
6 3/8 in. x 4 1/4 in. (161 mm x 107 mm)
Purchased, 2004
Photographs Collection
NPG x126367

Sitterback to top

  • Cecil Beaton (1904-1980), Photographer, designer and writer. Sitter associated with 360 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 1114 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Cecil Beaton (1904-1980), Photographer, designer and writer. Artist or producer associated with 1114 portraits, Sitter associated with 360 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Cecil Beaton's 1920s self-portrait Christmas card (shown in the centre of the frame) and inscribed, `Best Wishes for heartiness and jollity at Yuletide' was inspired by similar scenes of his postcard heroines shown surrounding him. Beaton's inspiration in taking up photography, was according to his Photobiography (1951), prompted by seeing aged 3, a postcard of Lily Elsie on his mother's bed that she had received in the morning's mail. Beaton subsequently collected such cards for himself in his scrapbooks and used for costume reference in his drawings and theatre designs.

Linked publicationsback to top

Events of 1920back to top

Current affairs

The Government of Ireland Act (Fourth Home Rule Bill) partitions Ireland into the Irish Free State with a devolved parliament in Dublin and Northern Ireland with a devolved parliament in Belfast.
The Communist Party of Great Britain is founded in London, uniting a number of independent socialist and Marxist parties into a single, united party.

Art and science

Queen Alexandra unveils a monument to Edith Cavell in St Martin's Place opposite the National Portrait Gallery. The English nurse was executed in Germany for helping hundreds of allied soldiers to cross the border from occupied Belgium to the neutral Netherlands.
George V officially opens the Imperial War Museum at the Crystal Palace.

International

The Kapp Putsch threatens the newly formed Weimar Republic. In defiance of the Treaty of Versailles, the leaders of the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt refused to disband and marched on Berlin, occupying it on the 13th March. With the general army refusing to defend the city, the government fled to Stuttgart. The rebellion, however, failed after the workers joined a general strike, disabling their plans.

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