Cecil Beaton - Costume Design for My Fair Lady
Cecil Beaton - Costume Design for My Fair Lady
3149
SIR CECIL BEATON, CBE
(1904-1980)
Costume Design for the Ballroom Scene – My Fair Lady
Signed c.r.: Beaton, fabric sample attached l.l.
Pencil and watercolour heightened with white
Framed
39.5 by 23.5 cm., 15 ½ by 9 ¼ in.
(frame size 61.5 by 44.5 cm., 24 ¼ by 17 ½ in.)
Provenance:
From the Collection of Roy Astley
Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton was a fashion and portrait photographer, diarist, interior designer and stage and costume designer for the stage and screen. He was born in Hampstead and educated at Harrow and St John’s College, Cambridge although he left without a degree in 1925. He worked as a photographer for fashion magazines and became an extremely popular and well-connected society portraitist who also recorded the gathering of his friends among the Bright Young Things of the 20s and 30s.
Following the war Beaton started designing stage sets and costumes for London and Broadway. His most lauded achievement for the stage being the costumes for Lerner and Loewe’s 1956 musical production of My Fair Lady for which he won a Tony. He then went on to use his designs for the 1964 film adaptation staring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn. Beaton won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for this production.
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Costume Design for the Ballroom Scene – My Fair LadySigned c.r.: Beaton, fabric sample attached l.l.Pencil and watercolour heightened with whiteFramed39.5 by 23.5 cm., 15 ½ by 9 ¼ in.(frame size 61.5 by 44.5 cm., 24 ¼ by 17 ½ in.)Provenance:From the Collection of Roy AstleyCecil Walter Hardy Beaton was a fashion and portrait photographer, diarist, interior designer and stage and costume designer for the stage and screen. He was born in Hampstead and educated at Harrow and St John’s College, Cambridge although he left without a degree in 1925. He worked as a photographer for fashion magazines and became an extremely popular and well-connected society portraitist who also recorded the gathering of his friends among the Bright Young Things of the 20s and 30s. Following the war Beaton started designing stage sets and costumes for London and Broadway. His most lauded achievement for the stage being the costumes for Lerner and Loewe’s 1956 musical production of My Fair Lady for which he won a Tony. He then went on to use his designs for the 1964 film adaptation staring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn. Beaton won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for this production.){kind=link}