Cecil Beaton - Costume Design for Turandot
Cecil Beaton - Costume Design for Turandot
3148
SIR CECIL BEATON, CBE
(1904-1980)
Costume Design for Turandot - 1961
Signed l.r.: BEATON
Watercolour and pen and ink over traces of pencil
Framed
33 by 23 cm., 13 by 9 in.
(frame size 54 by 43 cm., 21 ¼ by 17 in.)
Provenance:
Roy Astley collection.
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. After the war Beaton started designing stage sets and costumes for London and Broadway. His most lauded achievement for the stage being the costume for Lerner and Loewe’s 1956 production of My Fair Lady.
Beaton’s lavish set and costume designs for Puccini’s Turandot were originally for the 1961 production at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York. The performance then moved to the Royal Opera House, London, in February 1963. Beaton’s designs were praised by the critics for being full of colour and elaborate. Philip Hope-Wallace, for the Guardian described: “Cecil Beaton has designed superb costumes, of original fantasy and high skill.”
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Costume Design for Turandot - 1961Signed l.r.: BEATONWatercolour and pen and ink over traces of pencilFramed33 by 23 cm., 13 by 9 in.(frame size 54 by 43 cm., 21 ¼ by 17 in.)Provenance:Roy Astley collection.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. After the war Beaton started designing stage sets and costumes for London and Broadway. His most lauded achievement for the stage being the costume for Lerner and Loewe’s 1956 production of My Fair Lady.Beaton’s lavish set and costume designs for Puccini’s Turandot were originally for the 1961 production at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York. The performance then moved to the Royal Opera House, London, in February 1963. Beaton’s designs were praised by the critics for being full of colour and elaborate. Philip Hope-Wallace, for the Guardian described: “Cecil Beaton has designed superb costumes, of original fantasy and high skill.”){kind=link}