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Laurie Lee

9 of 15 portraits of Laurie Lee

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Laurie Lee

by Ida Kar
vintage bromide print, 1956
9 3/4 in. x 11 7/4 in. (247 mm x 299 mm)
Purchased, 1999
Photographs Collection
NPG x88804

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 Lee at his Chelsea flat a year after the publication of A Rose for Winter (1955), an account of a period spent in Spain with his wife Kathy Polge. The following year, the Hogarth Press paid Lee a £500 advance for his most acclaimed autobiographical work,
Cider with Rosie (1959).

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. 104 Read entry

    Lee spent his childhood in Gloucestershire, left school aged fifteen, and in 1934 moved to London, walking there with very little besides his violin. Lee wrote poetry while working as a labourer by day and spending his evenings in Soho cafés. He was an International Brigade volunteer in the Spanish Civil War, and during the Second World War worked as a journalist and scriptwriter. Lee decided to pursue his writing career after his poetry appeared in Horizon magazine (then edited by Cyril Connolly), publishing his first volume, The Sun My Monument, in 1944. Kar photographed Lee a year after the publication of A Rose for Winter (1955), an account of a period spent in Spain with his wife, Kathy Polge. The following year, the Hogarth Press paid Lee £500 to concentrate on writing his most acclaimed work, the autobiographical Cider with Rosie (1959). The success of this book funded Lee's purchase of Rose Cottage in Slad, Gloucestershire, although he never gave up his Chelsea flat, the hub of his social life, where Kar photographed him against a backdrop of pin-ups. Lee's works As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969) and A Moment of War (1991) completed his autobiographical trilogy.

Placesback to top

Portrait setback to top

Events of 1956back to top

Current affairs

The first supermarket opens in Britain. Inspired by the new innovation in America, Jack Cohen opened his first Tesco supermarket in Essex.
The First Clean Air Act is passed in response to the 'Pea Soup' smog over London.

Art and science

Pop Art is seen for the first time in the This is Tomorrow exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery. The exhibition included Richard Hamilton's iconic collage: What is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?
John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger opens at the Royal Court Theatre, introducing the phrase 'Angry young man' to describe the new movement of gritty, post-war realism in literature.

International

The Suez Crisis rocked Eden's premiership and marked the decline of British world power and influence in favour of America. In 1956 President Nasser of Egypt nationalised the Suez canal. Although Britain and France, who had owned the canal since the 19th century, invaded Egypt, they were soon persuaded to withdraw by US President Eisenhower who disapproved of the occupation.

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