W.H. Auden

1 portrait of W.H. Auden

© Cecil Beaton Archive / Condé Nast

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W.H. Auden

by Cecil Beaton
bromide print, 1967
7 3/8 in. x 7 1/2 in. (188 mm x 190 mm)
Accepted in lieu of tax by H.M. Government and allocated to the Gallery, 1991
Photographs Collection
NPG x40007

Sitterback to top

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

In this, the final portrait taken by Beaton of Auden, the pair have repeated the pose used fourteen years earlier, showing the poet's head reflected in a mirror. By this time, Auden's deeply lined face had become familiar on television and in the press. In 1965 he published the collection About the House, which included a fifteen-poem sequence of poems about the Austrian farmhouse he had bought in 1958.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Toksvig, Sandi; Dyer, Richard, Gay Icons, 2009 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 2 July - 18 October 2009), p. 79

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Subject/Themeback to top

Events of 1967back to top

Current affairs

Harold Wilson decides to devalue the pound by nearly 15% in order to ' break out from the straitjacket' of boom and bust economics. The decision was controversial and prompted Wilson to reassure the public that the 'pound in your pocket' would not be worth any less.

Art and science

The Beatles release Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, with a record sleeve designed by pop artist, Peter Blake. The band's musical experimentation and colourful new look was an example of psychedelic, and the LP is often regarded as one of the first concept albums.

International

Che Guevara is captured and executed in Bolivia. The guerrilla leader and revolutionary icon was hunted down by the CIA and captured and shot by Bolivian Special Forces. He had been leading Bolivian insurgents in an attempt to overthrow the government.

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