From Booklist
In the superb essay accompanying this companion to a British National Portrait Gallery exhibition, contributor Peter Conrad portrays Cecil Beaton (1904-80) as a man dedicated to ideal beauty. He photographed performers in particular to hold them at their peak against the ravages of time, and he planned very conscientiously settings that would enhance their allure. Bearing Conrad out, here are iconic portraits of Gary Cooper, Greta Garbo, Vivien Leigh, Marlene Dietrich, and beauties whose fame has fled (just look at Gwili Andre--who?). Beaton never overcooked, so to speak, his portraits, a la the great Hollywood photographers; his beauties usually seem to live in the world the rest of us inhabit. Beaton carried his idealism into portraiture of the British royal family; Churchill; great artists, such as Picasso; and even a little girl in hospital as a consequence of the Blitz. Unfortunately, several pictures Conrad cites don't appear among the 151 plates and 66 figures in the book, which is vexing but hardly reason not to acquire this luscious volume. Ray Olson
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Book Description
Sir Cecil Beaton (1904--1980) was one of the most renowned photographers of his generation. A major contributor to Vogue and Vanity Fair in Britain, France, and America, Beaton captured for posterity such admired subjects as artists Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol, and Richard Avedon; actresses Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and Greta Garbo; statesmen and politicians Winston Churchill and Robert Kennedy; and, of course, Britain's Royal Family. This sumptuously illustrated book--published on the centenary of Beaton's birth--brings together many of his evocative portraits in celebration of his remarkable life and work. Gifted in an extraordinary range of fields, Beaton was noted for his flamboyant sense of style. His portraits, fashion photographs, book jacket designs, war reportage, designs for theater and film, and diaries mark him as one of the first international multi-media artists. This book features an illustrated essay discussing the wide range of the photographer's career as well as a portfolio of 160 beautiful reproductions of his most famous portraits and an extended illustrated chronology. Beaton: Portraits is an exciting and comprehensive look at a tour-de-force photographer and is an essential book for anyone interested in photography, fashion, or twentieth-century style and design.
From the Publisher
This book accompanies a major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London (Feb. 5 to May 31, 2004)
About the Author
Terence Pepper is Curator of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, London; Peter Conrad is Tutor of English at Christ Church, Oxford; Sir Roy Strong, former director of the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum, is also the author of The Artist and the Garden, published by Yale University Press.
Beaton Portraits FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Sir Cecil Beaton (1904-1980) was one of the most renowned photographers of his generation. A major contributor to Vogue and Vanity Fair in Britain, France, and America, Beaton captured for posterity such admired subjects as artists Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, and Richard Avedon; actresses Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and Greta Garbo; statesmen and politicians Winston Churchill and Robert Kennedy; and, of course, Britain's Royal Family. This sumptuously illustrated book - published on the centenary of Beaton's birth - brings together many of his evocative portraits in celebration of his remarkable life and work." "Gifted in an extraordinary range of fields, Beaton was noted for his flamboyant sense of style. His portraits, fashion photographs, book jacket designs, war reportage, designs for theater and film, and diaries mark him as one of the first international multi-media artists. This book features an illustrated essay discussing the wide range of the photographer's career as well as a portfolio of 160 reproductions of his most famous portraits and an extended illustrated chronology." Beaton: Portraits is a comprehensive look at a tour-de-force photographer and is an essential book for anyone interested in photography, fashion, or twentieth-century style and design.
FROM THE CRITICS
David Kaufman - The New York Times
The handsome reproductions in Beaton Portraits, by Terence Pepper, curator of photographs at the National Portrait Gallery in London, include a superbly androgynous Katharine Hepburn; Marlon Brando before his breakthrough in ''A Streetcar Named Desire,'' looking, improbably, like a British schoolboy with long tousled hair; Francis Bacon appearing every bit as alarming as a figure in one of his paintings. Here also is an irresistibly seductive -- and remarkably hirsute -- Yul Brynner. In an included essay, Peter Conrad, who teaches English at Oxford University, persuasively argues that although Beaton glorified his subjects, he also ''glimpsed a reality that belied the fiction he was helping to create.''
Library Journal
Compiled by photography curator Pepper (Horst Portraits: 60 Years of Style), this companion to a recent exhibition celebrates the centennial of British photographer Sir Cecil Beaton (1904-80) and documents both his prominent and his lesser-known projects. Pepper argues for a higher attribution to Beaton-beyond that of celebrity photographer-as an early innovator and multimedia artist who integrated theater, film, illustration, and photography and influenced photographers like William Penn and Mario Testino. During a long and prolific period between 1922 and 1978, Beaton worked for popular magazines like Vogue and Vanity Fair, creating glamorous, velvety portraits of the literary, artistic, and cinematic elite. In 1967, he donated his substantial archive to London's National Portrait Gallery, which led in 1972 to the creation of a photography and film department curated by Roy Strong (who contributes a foreword). The book is made up of 230 high-quality, largely black-and-white portraits of actors, writers, rock stars, and royalty (e.g., Audrey Hepburn, Marlon Brando, Mick Jagger, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Queen Elizabeth) and a comprehensive visual chronology that documents the artist's life and career with family images, journals, and reproductions of his little-known stage designs, book jackets, montages, and costumes. Well researched, written, and laid out, the book contributes new material to the study of Beaton while providing a suitable introduction to his work. Recommended for larger public and academic libraries supporting interest in photography, fashion, and design.-Kate Cunningham-Hendrix, Colorado State Univ. Libs., Fort Collins Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Art & Photography
Book Info
