Cecil Beaton - Gwendolen
Cecil Beaton - Gwendolen
3214
SIR CECIL BEATON, CBE
(1904-1980)
“Gwendolen is Devoted to Bread and Butter” – Illustration for the Importance of Being Earnest
Signed l.r.: Cecil Beaton; inscribed with title and instructions regarding page position on the reverse
Grey and green watercolour
Framed
41 by 34 cm.; 16 ¼ by 13 ½ in.
(frame size 62.5 by 54.5 cm., 24 ½ by 21 ½ in.)
Reproduced:
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Illustrated by Cecil Beaton, The Folio Society, London 1960, illus.p.29
This picture is accompanied by a copy of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Folio Society, 1960 with illustrations by Cecil Beaton.
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.
In 1960 Beaton was commission by the Folio Society to illustrate a luxury edition of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.
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“Gwendolen is Devoted to Bread and Butter” – Illustration for the Importance of Being EarnestSigned l.r.: Cecil Beaton; inscribed with title and instructions regarding page position on the reverseGrey and green watercolourFramed41 by 34 cm.; 16 ¼ by 13 ½ in.(frame size 62.5 by 54.5 cm., 24 ½ by 21 ½ in.)Reproduced:Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Illustrated by Cecil Beaton, The Folio Society, London 1960, illus.p.29This picture is accompanied by a copy of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Folio Society, 1960 with illustrations by Cecil Beaton.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.In 1960 Beaton was commission by the Folio Society to illustrate a luxury edition of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.){kind=link}