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Reginald Beaton; Cecil Beaton; Etty Beaton
1 of 3 portraits of Reginald Beaton
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Reginald Beaton; Cecil Beaton; Etty Beaton
by Lallie Charles
photogravure reproduction, 1908
8 1/2 in. x 6 1/4 in. (217 mm x 160 mm)
Given by Terence Pepper, 2003
Photographs Collection
NPG x126125
Sittersback to top
- Cecil Beaton (1904-1980), Photographer, designer and writer. Sitter associated with 360 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 1114 portraits. Identify
- Esther ('Etty') Beaton (Mrs Ernest Walter Hardy) (1872-1962), Mother of Cecil, Nancy, Baba and Reggie Beaton. Sitter in 9 portraits. Identify
- Reginald Beaton (1905-1933), Brother of Cecil Beaton. Sitter in 3 portraits. Identify
Artistback to top
- Lallie Charles (née Charlotte Elizabeth Martin) (1869-1919), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 102 portraits, Sitter in 10 portraits.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Pepper, Terence, High Society: Photographs 1897-1914, 1998 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 30 January to 21 June 1998), p. 59 Read entry
In his Photobiography (1951) Beaton disclosed that his lifelong obsession with photography and all things theatrical began in 1907, when at the age of three he first saw a sepia postcard of Lily Elsie – then at the height of her fame as The Merry Widow - on his mother’s bed in her morning post. The theatre and photography were exquisitely combined for him on a shiny piece of 3 x 5-inch card. For this photograph, Beaton accompanied his mother Etty, Mrs Ernest Beaton (1872-1962) and his younger brother Reginald ‘Reggie’ (1905-33) to Mme Lallie Charles’s Curzon Street studio in Mayfair, where he capitulated to the artificial world of the studio photograph. Sixty years later he was to be photographed by Mme Yevonde, the one-time pupil of Lallie Charles, whose early work was much influenced by her style, which also finds an echo in Beaton’s own studies of Lily Elsie, published in his Book of Beauty (1930).
Subjects & Themesback to top
Events of 1908back to top
Current affairs
Henry Asquith replaces Henry Campbell-Bannerman as Liberal leader and Prime Minister, with David Lloyd George taking control of the Exchequer. Asquith and Lloyd George embark on a bold programme of social reform, laying the foundations of the Welfare State, introducing government pensions this year and later a system of National Insurance.The first aeroplane for the British army is built by the American, Samuel Cody.
Art and science
E.M. Forster's novel A Room with a View is published, following the experiences of a young woman, Lucy Honeychurch, in the repressed culture of Edwardian England.The French art critic Louis Vauxcelles first uses the term 'cubism' to refer to a landscape painting by Georges Braque.
International
King Carlos of Portugal and his heir, Prince Luis Filipe, are killed by assassins from the Republican trying to provoke a revolution. Carlos I, unpopular because of his extravagant lifestyle and extramarital affairs, was succeeded by his younger son, Manuel, the last monarch of the Braganza dynasty.Following the death of the Guangxu Emperor in China, his two year old nephew replaces him, becoming the the last Manchu emperor of China.
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