Identity area
Reference code
Beaton/A/A2/14a/55
Unique identifier
Title
Date(s)
- 23 Apr. 1949 (Circa. Letter dated 'April 23rd of thereabouts'.) (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
5 p. paper
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Photographer, artist, writer, and designer of scenery and costumes. Educated at Harrow and St John's College, Cambridge, 1922-5. Made his name as a photographer through portraits of the Sitwells. Employed by Vogue in London and New York. Published 'The Book of Beauty' (1930). Photographed the Duke of Windsor's wedding, 1937. War photographer, 1939-45. Designed 'Lady Windermere's Fan', 1945. Designed costumes for 'An Ideal Husband' and 'Anna Karenina', 1948. Worked on 'The School for Scandal', 1949, 'Quadrille' for Noel Coward, 1952, 'Turandot', 1961, and 'La Traviata', 1966. Designed costumes for 'My Fair Lady', 1956, and for the film version in Hollywood, 1963. His play 'The Gainsborough Girls', 1951 and 1959, was unsuccessful. Published 'The Glass of Fashion' (1954), and six volumes of diaries. Exhibited photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, 1968. Knighted 1972.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Describes the coming of Spring to the Wiltshire countryside. Tells Garbo that 'black and white' has been asking him for news of her. Asks Garbo to write to him. Describes his trip to Paris, including attending the play for which Bebe [Christian Berard] designed his last set. Mentions his Greek friend with whom he once went to Switzerland, Barbara Hutton, an elderly Abyssinian prince to whom Beaton he had loaned money, and Boris Kochno. Writes that, on his return to England, Oggie Lynn informed him that his secretary, Maud Nelson, was in hospital with cancer. He has spent a week at Reddish, working on his play. He is travelling to London on Friday because his uncle, Cecil, has died suddenly.