Identity area
Reference code
Beaton/D/1/8/8
Unique identifier
Title
Date(s)
- 26 July 1961 (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
3p 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
A typewritten letter, in response to Wittstein's letter dated 24th July, with a cover letter from Eileen Hose to Arnold Weissberger, requesting that Weissberger familiarise himself with the contents of the letter before passing it on to Wittstein. Beaton writes of his consternation upon hearing that his work has been accidentally incinerated. While he accepts that accidents do happen, he is deeply frustrated that his work has been lost and requests that an exact list of what is missing be sent to him.