Cecil Beaton: about the Exhibition

8 February - 22 April 2012

The photographs of the British royal family by Sir Cecil Beaton (1904-1980) were central to shaping the monarchy's public image in the mid-20th century. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was still a young princess when she first sat for Beaton in 1942. Over the next three decades he would be invited to photograph the Queen on many significant occasions, including her Coronation Day in 1953.

The most memorable of Beaton's images combine the splendour of historic royal portrait painting with an intimacy that only photography and film can convey. His detailed diary accounts reveal the complexities of each sitting, from the intense planning and excitement beforehand to the pressures of achieving the perfect shot.

Beaton bequeathed his archive of royal portraits to his devoted secretary Eileen Hose. In 1987 she, in turn, bequeathed the archive to the V&A. Photographs, diaries, personal letters and press cuttings combine to tell the fascinating story of a magnificent collaboration between crown and camera.

A premier portrait photographer

Cecil Beaton by Curtis Moffat, Gelatin silver print, about 1930. Museum no. E.1557-2007, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Estate of Curtis Moffa Cecil Beaton began to pursue photography at a very early age. As a teenager he spent many hours attempting to recreate the look of glamorous society portraits using his sisters, Nancy and Baba, as models. His career took off in the mid 1920s, when he began to contribute photographs and illustrations to Vogue magazine. His first solo exhibition in London in 1927 established him as one of the leading fashion photographers and portraitists of his generation. Beaton became sought-after on both sides of the Atlantic, photographing famous faces from Hollywood, the theatre world and society. From the 1950s his set designs for theatre and films, such as My Fair Lady (1956), defined the glamorous look of the era. Candid snapshots and studio portraits of Beaton by his contemporaries display his sense of style, his charm, vanity and vivacious personality.

Princess Elizabeth and the portrait tradition

Princess Elizabeth by Cecil Beaton, Gelatin silver print, Buckingham Palace, March 1945. Museum no. E.1361-2010, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Cecil Beaton's diary, July 1939

The opportunity to photograph Queen Elizabeth, Queen Consort of King George VI, was the high point of Beaton's career to date. Published two months after the outbreak of the Second World War, his images presented a sense of continuity with a magnificent pre-war Britain. Several wartime sittings of the Queen and her family would reinforce his vision of a seemingly unshakable monarchy and witness the transformation of her daughter Princess Elizabeth from girl to young woman.

The flowers that appear in many of Beaton's portraits were often picked from his own garden. Cascading arrangements of roses, carnations, lilies and hydrangeas filled the space between a photographic backdrop and the sitter, and were an essential prop in the creation of his idealised Arcadian scenes.

The Coronation

Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton, 2 June 1953. Museum no. PH.311-1987, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

On the morning of 2 June 1953, three million people lined the streets between Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey to witness the process of the Gold State Coach. Millions more crowded around newly bought television sets to watch the investiture of Britain's youngest sovereign since Queen Victoria. For many, the Coronation represented the beginning of a new age. It was a time for optimism and innovation that the press termed 'the new Elizabethan era'.

Cecil Beaton attended the ceremony, along with 8,000 other guests. He sat in a balcony close to the pipes of the great organ, recording his impression of the glorious pageant in animated prose and black ink sketches. After the ceremony he returned to the Palace to make final preparations for the official portrait sitting.

In this glittering portrait, the Queen wears the imperial state crown, a replica of that made for Queen Victoria's Coronation. The Queen holds the sceptre with the cross in her right hand, balanced by the orb in her left. On her right hand she wears the coronation ring, a symbol that the sovereign is 'wedded' to the state. On both wrists are the armills, golden bracelets signifying sincerity and wisdom.



The next generation

Princess Elizabeth and Prince Charles by Cecil Beaton, Gelatin silver print, December 1948, Buckingham Palace. Museum no. PH.218-1987, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

On 14 November 1948 Princess Elizabeth gave birth to her first child, Prince Charles Philip Arthur George. At her mother’s suggestion, the Princess chose Beaton to photograph her newborn son. Beaton would go on to take photographs commemorating the births of her other children: Princess Anne in 1950, Prince Andrew in 1960 and Prince Edward in 1964.Beaton’s tender portraits depicted the Queen as a figure to whom any parent could relate. In contrast to the splendid Coronation images, these photographs capture a more intimate and relaxed side of family life.

In the decade between the births of Princess Anne and Prince Andrew, Beaton’s approach to royal portraiture changed dramatically. All attention was now focused on the sitters, a stark white background replacing the elaborate Rococo-inspired backdrops of earlier years.

Beaton photographed Prince Charles on 13 December 1948, two days before the Prince's christening. He commissioned a new backdrop for the occasion, which his assistants installed in the gold and ivory-coloured Music Room at Buckingham Palace. Beaton used a large 8 x 10 inch and smaller Rolleiflex cameras. He recalled that, 'his mother sat by the cot and, holding his hand, watched his movements with curiosity, pride and amusement'.



The 1968 sitting

Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton, Gelatin silver print, Buckingham Palace, 1968. Museum no. PH.318-1987, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

In the summer of 1968, Beaton photographed the Queen in anticipation of his forthcoming exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. He felt anxious before the sitting, writing in his diary: ‘The difficulties are great. Our points of view, our tastes are so different. The result is a compromise between two people and the fates play a large part.’Beaton selected plain white and blue backgrounds, resolving to be ‘stark and clear and bold’. The portraits were a triumph. They were the last photographs Beaton made of Elizabeth II, although he continued to photograph other members of the family until 1979.

Several photographers shared with Beaton the honour of being invited to photograph Elizabeth II, yet few had such an enduring relationship with the monarchy over such a long and transformative period.

The photograph of the Queen wearing the Admiral's Boat Cloak against a blue backdrop was powerful in its simplicity. it was one of the highlights of over 500 photographs by Beaton exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in 1968. Beaton eliminated the magnificent regalia and sparkling gowns seen in other portraits to produce a contemplative and timeless image of the monarch.



Video: Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton

This film features interviews with curator Susanna Brown, Robin Muir of Vogue and a very special discussion with two of Beaton’s Coronation Day assistants, John Drysdale and Ray Harwood – together again for the first time in 60 years.



View transcript of video

Susanna Brown: The British royal family, from the very earliest years of photography, understood the important role that this young medium could play in sending their image throughout the world, throughout the Empire, as it was then. Victoria and Albert were definitely great patrons of photography and I think from those very earliest years, the royal family has continued to work with photographers to produce their image for the public. Certainly, Beaton’s pictures were very much intended to be seen by the public. The primary purpose of Beaton’s photographs was to be reproduced in the press, not only the British press, but also across the commonwealth and around the world. Robin Muir: Cecil Beaton had a very long and distinguished career with Vogue. By the 1950s he was one of the great fashion photographers that Vogue has, probably its greatest fashion photographer at that time and really he does call the shots. So a lot of the day-to-day fashion photography is done by what one might call the ‘minor stars’, leaving Beaton free for these rather wonderful special assignments. If you had to think of who the greatest living British photographer at that time was, you know Cecil Beaton would be there. He has all the right attributes – he’s already on very good terms with the royal family since 1939 and his first photographs, he has a huge range of social connections, he is tremendously confident. In short, he’s the kind of man that you would expect to do such a big occasion as the coronation. I’d be hard pressed to think of anybody else that would do it so well, so readily and so effectively. Susanna Brown: The archive of Beaton’s royal photographs was acquired in 1987. The whole archive was bequeathed to the museum by Cecil Beaton’s secretary, Eileen Hove. In total, there are about 18,000 objects in the Beaton collection – it is huge – but that includes not only the photographs, but also negatives, transparencies and 45 huge volumes of Beaton’s press cuttings which he kept from his teenage years throughout his life, right up until his death in 1980. We are really pleased to be including in the exhibition some of Beaton’s contact sheets which haven’t been exhibited before. They really show the subtle movements within each pose – often he’s giving very particular directions to the Queen or the other royal sitters. The contact sheets reveal his directions and they’re really fantastic objects in themselves to show. For us they also serve as a record of the un re-touched records. The final images, which visitors will see in the exhibition, Have all been very heavily retouched and this is a really important stage in the process of the creation of a royal portrait. Often Beaton would advise his re-touchers to slim the waistlines of the sitters or perhaps remove a double chin. These details were very important in constructing and idealised image. These aren’t documentary shots, they’re a much more romantic style of portraiture in which no hair is out of place and every detail is perfect. Beaton never worked alone at his royal portrait sittings. They were very elaborate events that required a crew of people to assist. For us, as historians researching Beaton’s work, it has been really useful to be able to interview some of the assistants who are still alive. In particular John Drysdale and Ray Harwood, who both worked with Beaton on the day of the coronation sitting at Buckingham Palace. Both Ray and John were assistants at Vogue studios, so they worked with a number of different photographers there, primarily on fashion and portrait sittings. Ray Harwood: Beaton was Beaton and he was very much in control. At the coronation he desperately needed us because there was a lot of work to be done and the preparation for it took two days. On the third day the Queen came in and sat down into a prepared set. We had to do a dummy run with the lighting and know – you didn’t stand there and wait for the Queen to pose and then read the lighting. By God, no chance! John Drysdale: I think we’d exposed film that had previously been developed to make sure we got the right exposure. Beaton came in and after a very short time they started processing through all these people. We were taking pictures as fast as you could take them, piling the slides up and getting them out of the way, then the next lot in … Ray Horwood: Remember that we’d done it before. John had been on several royal shoots and so had I, so it wasn’t a question of being awed by the fact that the Queen was in the same room as you, you were very aware of the fact … John Drysdale: We had been to Buckiingham Palace before. We hardly had time to look at her. She was there, we put the film in, exposed it, as many as we could get and then the time came that she moved off and the next one moved in. Ray Horwood: It was fine, it worked out very well. You’ve got to realise that John and I haven’t met for 60 years, would you say? 60 years ago we worked together on the coronation. He went his way and I went mine and we haven’t met until this afternoon, isn’t that something?

Video: Cecil Beaton's Visitors' Book

Cecil Beaton’s visitors’ book is a who’s who of the 20th century, and contained the signatures of Greta Garbo, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Dali and the Queen Mother, among many others.

Beaton’s family have kindly allowed us to take a look inside the book, and view the signatures and sketches of visiting luminaries from the 1930s up to the late 1970s.

View transcript of video

One of the most fascinating objects that we’re showing in the V&A exhibition is Cecil Beaton’s own visitors book which he began to use in 1930 when he moved to Ashcombe House in Wiltshire. The book spans the 30s, the 40s, all the way up to 1979 to Beaton’s home in the village of Broad Chalke. In the book we find the names not only of Beaton’s family and closest friends, but also of great stars of the century. People such as the Sitwell siblings, Greta Garbo the great screen actress, Beaton’s friend, Diana Vreeland, the editor of Vogue and also great poets, for example, one of the best loved poet laureates of the 20th century, Sir John Betjeman. Many of Beaton’s visitors were his fellow artists and photographers. The visitors book doesn’t just include the signatures of Beaton’s famous friends and family, it also includes beautiful drawings and illustrations and handwritten messages. This is a beautiful drawing by the artist Francis Rose of the house. Some of the most famous artists that visited him at Reddish were Salvador Dalí who produced this sketch. On the top of this page is the signature of the choreographer Frederick Ashton, founding choreographer of the Royal Ballet in London. Certainly the most famous visitor to Beaton’s house Reddish in the village of Broad Chalke was Queen Elizabeth. At the time of her visit she was Elizabeth the Queen Mother and her signature is seen here with the date November 19th 1955. This extraordinary book really serves as a ‘who’s who’ of the mid-20th century and it’s a fantastic record of Beaton’s huge circle of friends and colleagues throughout his long career.

Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton: A Diamond Jubilee Celebration was kindly sponsored by Garrard.