Identity area
Reference code
Beaton/A/A2/14a/62
Unique identifier
Title
Date(s)
- 12 June 1949 (Circa. Letter dated 'Sunday morning'.) (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
3 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
Informs Garbo that he is travelling to Paris on Tuesday, expects to see George Schlee and hopes to see Garbo. Describes a trip to the Cotswolds. Tells an anecdote about how, whilst there, he let Evelyn Waugh eat a caterpillar. Mentions a visit to London. Describes a trip to buy plants and garden ornaments from 'a rich Jew who was giving up his house'. Writes about a party with his family and David. Repeats news that Christopher Isherwood's friends in Los Angeles have been placed under state control, and 'black and white' has a flat in Paris.