A life behind the lens

Driven by a desire to scale high society, Cecil Beaton’s incredible images of 20th century stars defined an era

- By Sue Lee

Taken in New York in 1956 during rehearsals for My Fair Lady, Cecil Beaton's portraits of Marilyn Monroe capture the star in an unusually spontaneous mood. Shot in his suite at the Ambassador Hotel, Monroe arrived alone and styled herself, bringing an immediacy and informality to the sitting. The images reveal a compelling mix of playfulness, allure and vulnerability.

He was one of high society’s most influential photographers whose subjects read like a who’s who of the 20th century. From Hollywood A-listers Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and Julie Andrews to Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret and Winston Churchill, the lens of Cecil Beaton captured them all in era-defining portraits.

But behind the Vogue shoots, his Academy Awards for costume design and a flamboyant social life, lay a complex man who struggled with self-doubt and his own sexuality. Now a major new exhibition will offer a fresh perspective on the man who advised others to “be daring, be different, be anything ...against the play-it-safers”.

Cecil Beaton: Staging Icons will open at Harewood House in West Yorkshire next month. Curator Rebecca Burton says: “He was groundbreaking and that is why he is still part of the public imagination.

“Beaton used staging — props, backgrounds, costumes to say something about his sitters and make them relatable. That’s why his images have endured and why he remains so influential.”

For Robin Muir, photographic historian and external curator for the National Portrait Gallery, which has partnered with Harewood House, Beaton was the eye of the century.

Robin says: “He is one of the most significant cultural figures to appear in Britain in the 20th century. His great skill was to take some of the mystique out of photography. If you look at fashion photography before him it is very stylised, everybody is rigidly posed.