CARMEN: PHOTOGRAPHS OF A FASHION ICON
203
Cecil Beaton
Untitled
- Estimate
- $1,500 - 2,500
$6,250
Lot Details
Gelatin silver print.
n.d.
9 5/8 x 7 5/8 in. (24.4 x 19.4 cm)
Copyright credit Sotheby's and reproduction limitation stamps on the verso.
Specialist
Full-Cataloguing
Catalogue Essay
“This was done the second week I worked for Vogue. Scully Montgomery was the fashion editor at the time. Was I scared to be working with her and Cecil and Alexander Lieberman? No. You had all these clothes and accessories. It was an adventure.”
-Carmen
Please reference lot 194 for an essay on Carmen and this collection.
-Carmen
Please reference lot 194 for an essay on Carmen and this collection.
Provenance
Cecil Beaton
British | B. 1904 D. 1980Cecil Beaton was a highly celebrated British photographer who is perhaps best known for taking portraits of the colorful celebrities who composed the fashionable society of early-mid twentieth century London, all of whom were within his social circle. According to an autobiographical account, Cecil Beaton's relationship with photography began as a boy when he fell in love with picture postcards of the Edwardian theater actress Miss Lily Elsie. He took up photography at a young age, using his sisters Nancy and Baba as his primary subjects. Initially, Beaton sought to emulate pictures he saw in fashion magazines, especially the soft-focus technique used by Baron Adolphe de Meyer. In 1929 he moved to New York after signing a contract with American Vogue. Throughout the 1930s Beaton traveled extensively as a portrait photographer, spending time in Hollywood amongst the glitter and glamour of Hollywood film stars. When the Second World War began and focus turned towards its dangers and devastations, Queen Elizabeth II commissioned Beaton to document the ravages of the German blitz. Following the War, in addition to taking photographs, in the late 1950s into the 1960s Beaton was involved in film as a stage and costume designer. During this time, he designed the costume and set for the stage version of My Fair Lady (New York, 1956; London, 1958) and the film Gigi (1958).
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