Beaton: Portraits [Hardcover]

Terence Pepper (Author), Roy Strong (Contributor), Peter Conrad (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 9, 2004

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.

Editorial Reviews

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
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Publisher

This book accompanies a major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London (Feb. 5 to May 31, 2004)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (February 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300102895
• ISBN-13: 978-0300102895
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #758,306 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PICTURE PERFECT, WELL DEVELOPED AND STUNNING!, April 1, 2004

By 

Alan W. Petrucelli (THE ENTERTAINMENT REPORT (ALAN W. PETRUCELLI)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beaton: Portraits (Hardcover)

It's the photo of Robert and Ethel Kennedy that got to us. We always knew Cecil Beaton was a genius --- actor, costume designer, diarist, lover of Greta Garbo, social historian and all-around 20th century Gadabout. There wasn't a place worth going to that he hadn't been, and there wasn't a person worth knowing that he hadn't met. And, as evidenced by the comprehensive Beaton Portraits, damn few celebrities he hadn't photographed.
But here was Bobby and Ethel in a way that we had never seen them before, stripped of the Hyannisport-baked tans, free of the clinging kiddies. Beaton captures just Bobby and his wife; she's standing behind him, so positioned that her head seems to be floating on his left shoulder. Bobby is smiling awkwardly, Ethel is a toothy beam. It is, in one word, stunning.
Proof, indeed, that among Beaton's many talents, the strongest was his power of observation. He used a camera most of his life, to photograph everything from the day-to-day mundane to world shaking events and personalities. During the war, Beaton's photos of the uncelebrated British populace going to and fro in their workaday world, trying to ignore the horror and pain of the rubble caused by German bombs surrounding them, take your breath away, even today. And his candid, painstaking diaries, recording the earthshaking and ephemera of his life day-to-day, even hour-to-hour, are splendidly entertaining and a feast for history and entertainment buffs. But, as this current book shows, Beaton's true genius lay in his ability to capture the look, heart and soul of all those celebrities he photographed.
From Queens to Rock Stars, from old masters to young mistresses, from the 20s through the 70s, media [prostitues] and geniuses reside side-by-side in these pages. And, if God is in the detail, these seemingly simplistic photos are rich with telling trivialities. The clown's collar framing Audrey Hepburn, the vibrant plants surrounding Sylvia Sidney's face, Orson Welles' hand draped carelessly over a skull, the pearl earrings and necklace accenting Leontyne Price ... each photo hauntingly evokes the time and personality of each celebrity. The British Royal Family, as well as the outcast Wallis Simpson, are lovingly recreated here, as well as Churchill, Noel and Gertie, Warhol and Jagger, and everyone in-between.
Beaton was a true historian --- his evocation of the 20th century is an astounding trip through six decades of the famous, talented, twisted and distinguished. But Beaton Portraits is much more than a slick coffee table book. Each of the more than 150 plates summon our previous century as quickly and immediately as a flash of half-forgotten memory. Beaton happily records more than 50 years of glamour, style and the effortless world where charm and taste were the only requirements.