Cecil Beaton: Staging Icons | Harewood House Trust
Exhibitions
The exhibition, co-organized by the National Portrait Gallery and the Harwood Estate Trust, marks the first collaboration between the two institutions. Over fifty works by Beaton will be featured from the National Portrait Gallery's collection, several of which are being shown publicly for the first time.
Theatricality is his signature
Beaton's photography never content to be merely an observer. He habitually places his subjects within meticulously designed sets—backgrounds of unusual materials, dramatic lighting, props and costumes perfectly suited to the subject's temperament. Each photograph is more like a frozen scene from a play.
This aesthetic of "photography as performance" is succinctly expressed in the exhibition's title: Staging Icons—bringing idols onto the stage.
The exhibition includes classic portraits of Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Fred Astaire, Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret, Julie Andrews, and others, almost a comprehensive chronicle of 20th-century figures.
