Cecil Beaton in New York

I got an e-mail from Andrew Ginger from Beaudesert LTD. They are the English company who makes bespoke beds and hand printed fabrics. One such line includes bewitching Cecil Beaton fabrics.



Well it would seem that the Museum of the City of New York is opening a show on Beaton in October. The show will feature a new book by Donald Albrecht. In addition Beaudesert will be launching a new collection of New York inspired Beaton fabrics. I am so looking forward to the new line.


To check out Beaton fabrics past and present check out their web site: www.cecilbeatonfabrics.com.

Rex Whistler

Rex Whistler, Cecil Beaton, Georgia Sitwell, William Walton, Stephen
Tennant, Teresa Jungman, and Zita Jungman. Photographed by Cecil Beaton.

Andrew Graham-Dixon set the stage in his Sunday Telegraph review of the 2006 Rex Whistler exhibition at the Brighton Museum.

"October 1927 Cecil Beaton contrived a photograph of “the bright young things”, as they styled themselves, to which he gave the laconic title On The Bridge, Wilsford. Seven young men and women pose for the camera, all dressed up, in ruffs and frills, patterned silk waistcoats and faux-rustic breeches, as courtly versions of the shepherds and shepherdesses of Arcadia. Beaton himself is there, along with Georgia Sitwell, Zita and “Baby” Jungman, Stephen Tennant, the composer William Walton and the painter-illustrator Rex Whistler. Soon afterwards Osbert Sitwell took the whole group to visit Lytton Strachey at nearby Ham Spray. In characteristically acerbic fashion, Strachey pronounced them “perfectly divine … strange creatures with just a few feathers where brains ought to be.”

Zita Jungman, William Walton, Cecil Beaton, Stephen Tennant, Georgia
Sitwell, Teresa Jungman, and Rex Whistler. Photographed by Cecil Beaton.

Rex Whistler by Cecil Beaton

Rex Whistler showed a knack for art as a child. At age 8, he produced this silhouette of his brother, Laurence, aged 2.

Finding the Royal Academy too stifling, he moved to the Slade School and came into his own. Unlike many of his generation, Whistler was never taken by the burgeoning avant-garde. He preferred the Arcadian landscapes of England. He took great pride in providing the art that adorned the jackets of many of his friends works including Cecil Beaton, Edith Olivier, Beverley Nichols and Laurence Whistler.

Rex Whistler is believed to be the model for Charles Ryder in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. He made many attempts at purging his underlying homosexual tendencies including losing his virginity to none other than Tallulah Bankhead.

A nude of Lady Caroline Paget

The great "love" of his life was Lady Caroline Paget. He met her at the home of Edith Olivier. Olivier wanted Rex to settle down into a stable relationship. Edith's candidate was actress Jill Furse who was mad for Rex. The feeling was not mutual. (In the kind of serendipity we love at Lucindaville, Jill Furse went on to marry or "settle" as some would say, for Rex's brother, Laurence. Jill died in childbirth and within a few years, Laurence married Jill's sister, Theresa. But I digress...)

Rex Whistler's masterpiece is considered to be the 60 foot mural at Plas Newydd, the house of Lady Caroline's father, the Marquess of Anglesey. Plas Newydd is the largest repository of Whistler's paintings and drawings. It also houses the proof editions of his famous illustrations for Gulliver's Travels.


Unlucky in love, Whistler joined the war effort. He was commissioned into the Welsh Guards as a Lieutenant.

Self-Portrait in Uniform, 1940

During his stay in Brighton, before his embarkation to France for the invasion of Normandy, he painted a cartoon now known as Allegory: HRH The Prince Regent Awakening the Spirit of Brighton. The painting depicts the Prince Regent, naked except for a blue ribbon of the Garter and the badge of the Order resting on his backside. He is kneeling before a sleeping figure with a pink sash emblazoned Brighthelmstone.

Allegory: HRH The Prince Regent Awakening the Spirit of Brighton

Forty-three days later, Rex Whistler died. It was his first day in action. He was 39.



Many years later his brother wrote a biography of Rex Whistler, The Laughter and the Urn.

More Edith

Edith Olivier at 54

There was a lot of response to the Edith Olivier post. Again, I can't believe that I never posted about Olivier before. I also failed to mentions some obvious or perhaps I should say, pertinent facts about Edith. The great thing about blogging is that you may leave something out, but your readers always remember. And we are all better for our collective knowledge.

Home Before Dark pointed out that "Olivier" was not only Edith's family name, but one she shared with her distant cousin Larry. A quirky detail I left out but HBD caught: "Edith Olivier was distantly related to the actor Laurence Olivier. I think Edith’s uncle Henry was Sir Laurence’s grandfather. "

Just the type of weirdness I love and left out! Shame on me.


Edith Hope who has a wonderful blog wrote to point me toward her recent post on lunching at the Tate Gallery and visiting "Epicurania" a world created in a 1927 trompe-l'oeil mural by Rex Whistler. The mural was a collaboration with Edith Olivier depicting the story of seven people on an "Expedition in Search of Rare Meats." The Tate, Olivier, Whistler and Rare Meats, what could be more fun!

I was not obvious enough in my post. While Edith Olivier was closely connected to the "Bright Young Things" of Britain's 1930's, she was a bit older than that group whose exploits occurred largely in London. As I pointed out in my somewhat rambling post on Ashcombe, it would seem that much of the BYT's came to Wilton.

Cecil Beaton in the bathroom at Ashcombe

The young Rex Whistler became Edith Olivier protégé.

Handmade "monogrammed" envelope from Rex Whistler to Olivier

It was Olivier who first found Ashcombe for Cecil Beaton. She was a kind of den mother to this passionate and artistic bunch that came to Wilton for their weekends. The guests who came and went are a cavalcade of characters from Harold Acton to Elinor Wylie with a sprinkling of Guinness, Sitwell and Huxley thrown in for good measure. Penelope Middelboe, Edith's great great niece, edited selections from Edith's journals.


The cover features a painting of Edith by Rex Whistler. The journal entries are a fascinating counterpoint to books written during this period. As I said, most of the books about Britain in the 1930 are based in the cities, but Olivier remained in the country. While she was entertaining Oliver Messel and Stephen Tennant she was active in Women's Institute. The journals offer incite into the English countryside juxtaposed against a who's who of the artists that became household names.

Before I got any comments on Edith, I realized I had posted on Ashcombe, who's jacket was done by Rex Whistler and then on Olivier. I thought my next post should really be about Rex Whistler. And maybe it will.

Ashcombe: Cecil & Madonna

I miss Cottage Living. Not because Madonna was ever featured. Because it featured cottages with an average size of 500 to 1500 square feet. My subscription was replaced with Architectural Digest where the average bathroom was 500 to 1500 square feet. Don't get me wrong, I love big old designer monographs. However, if you can spend 13 million for a house, pay for the upkeep and drop another 5 million to decorate it, then I think it should look pretty good. In fact, I think it should look great.

Which is exactly what Madonna did. And I think, from what I have seen, that it looks pretty good.

Of course now, Guy Richie has it and he is re-decorating again. Still...

But before Madonna, Cecil Beaton took the reins of Ashcombe. He leased Ashcombe in 1930 for £50 a year.
Beaton took it over when there was no electricity, wild brush and disrepair. Beaton transformed the property with the help of his friends, artists and writers like ...


Edith Olivier (above) and Rex Whistler, Oliver Messel, Marchea Casarti, Ruth Gordon, and Ottoline Morrell to name a few. They gardened, painted, set urns on the roof, transformed the stables into studios, bedrooms into circuses, made films and partied with reckless abandon.

Beaton in the circus room

But they didn't spend millions to decorate, they used their imagination (and the imagination of friends) and I am sure hey spent a good bit of money for the time, but still, it was a personal space. A glorious space.


Cecil Beaton failed to heed the words of his father when he was told not to expend time and money on a house he didn't own. Father knows best. After more than a decade at Ashcombe, Cecil Beaton had to leave. He wrote an amazing love letter to the property in his book Ashcombe: The Story of a Fifteen Year Lease. The owners were not amused and were forever sending out the hounds on trespassers who wanted to see Ashcombe.



I wish there was more published about decorating in the spirit but not the size of Ashcombe. I want more small spaces transformed not by money, but by the ingenuity of the owner. Perhaps I just want to picnic with Cecil Beaton. I definitely want Cottage Living back!

The Last of My Beaton Diaries

The Wandering Years

Several weeks ago, I spent a whirlwind weekend visiting my friend Sandra, who was visiting the Delaware shore from England. It was one of those trips that included more time in the car than in an actual local, still it is always a joy to see Sandra. We share a passion for books and we are always finding things for each other that one cannot easily find across the pond --- in either direction.

This visit Sandra was carrying the final instalment of my collection of Cecil Beaton diaries. I know, they have been unexpurgated and reissued (yes, I have those, too) but there is something wonderful for a big old Beaton fan such as myself to have in my possession all six volumes of the diaries.

The Years Between

The Happy Years

The Strenuous Years

The Restless Years

The Parting Years

Say what you want about the kindle, it will never replace the printed page.

Wednesday Etiquette

It's Wednesday, again. I swear it comes around every week. Here's a truly engaging spot of "etiquette" from none other than Philippe Jullian, collector, painter, illustrator, art historian, biographer, novelist, aesthete, and dandy. Clearly he knows a thing or two about etiquette. In the late 50's he wrote a satire published in France as Dictionnaire du Snobisme. In 1958, it was publish in English as The Snob-Spotter’s Guide. It has drawing by Jullian as well as posts by friends including Cecil Beaton and Salvador Dali. As a bonus, it is my favorite -- an abecedary.

America

New York has snobbery but no society.

Etiquette

Etiquette is the barrier which society draws around itself as a protection against offences the "law" cannot touch -- a shield against the intrusion of the impertinent, the improper, and the vulgar -- a guard against those obtuse persons who, having neither talent nor delicacy, would be continually thrusting themselves into the society of men to whom their presence might (from the difference of feeling and habit) be offensive, and even insupportable.

Food and Drink Snobbery

Food and Drink Snobbery is as old as civilization. It has squandered immense fortunes, produced terrible indigestion, nightmares and, at the worst, high doctors' bills and even death.

Kansas City

No American will admit to having been born there.

Literature

Tutoiement

The use of the second person singular or Tu was rare in French society, but is more usual today because a number of foreigners did not understand its rarity.

In England the equivalent of 'tu' is to be called by one's Christian name. Mrs. Keppel, furious at having to entertain a newcomer to her circle, said, 'Dear Maud, may I call you Lady Bloch?'

Quail In Aspic

After all that turkey and dressing, I thought you might like some Quail In Aspic. The legendary Cecil Beaton was given rare access to Count Charles Korsetz. After much prodding, Count Korsetz allowed Beaton to tape record the story of his life. According to Beaton, the Count had never written anything, "beyond his signature on checks."

The Count discusses his life at university:

Bedecked for Oxford

"My father sent one of his rare communications, a tophole piece of advice. I must admit. :"The big nobs won't pay you much attention at first, but it's no use throwing your money around too soon. Just wait until they come to you.""

The manly equestrian arts:

The Count apre polo

"An assiduous rider was count Larisch. His presence could not have been to display his powers of horsemanship for, unlike most Austrians, he was one of the worst damn exponents of the art I ever saw... The only time I saw him hunting with the Beaufort he fell off at the very first fence and appeared no more at day."

His later years:

An older Count

"...many of our old friends had developed what they call 'a social conscience.'... Apart from addressing a few polite words to gardeners, trainers, jockeys, gamekeepers, stalkers, ghillies and peasants this was my first contact with the 'lower-orders'."

The Count's honesty was unsettling to some. Some however, realized that they had never actually hobnobbed with Count Korsetz. And some thought he bore a striking resemblance to Cecil Beaton's friend, Elsa Maxwell.

Ah, that Cecil Beaton, what a cut-up! Enjoy.