Once taken up by the famous Sitwell siblings (Edith, Osbert and Sacheverell) from 1926 on Beaton’s doorbell “never ceased to ring”. The show charts Beaton’s transformation from middle-class suburban schoolboy to glittering society figure and the unrivalled star of Vogue (he contributed to the title for 50 years). He won three Oscars for costume and art direction for the film of My Fair Lady (1965) and for Gigi (1958). Beaton was also a talented and acclaimed designer for film and stage, including his striking costumes for the stage musical of My Fair Lady (1956). His early studio portraits of ethereal debutantes and celebrities involved elaborate theatrical backdrops, and shaped the image of the Bright Young Things in popular culture. These arresting and artfully contrived images according to Muir, bring “to life a deliriously eccentric, glamorous and creative era of British cultural life, combining High Society and the avant-garde, artists and writers, socialites and partygoers” in a display of glamour, celebrity, wealth and creativity.Ĭecil Beaton, a prolific polymath who chronicled fashion and society, was amongst the leading British photographers of the 20th century. Beaton’s photographs of the young, glamorous and hedonistic socialites who indulged in every excess against a luxurious backdrop in the two decades between the world wars are still incredibly potent, imaginative and alluring. The show which features 170 works of photography, illustration and portraiture was curated by Robert Muir, a contributing editor to Vogue. The Bright Young Things of the 1920s as portrayed by Cecil Beaton are the inspiration for a major exhibition at the UK’s National Portrait Gallery in June this year.
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