Cecil Beaton’s Bright Young Things

Cecil Beaton (1904-1980) is one of the most celebrated British Portrait photographers of the twentieth century and is renowned for his images of elegance, glamour and style. His influence on portrait photography was profound and lives on today in the work of many contemporary photographers.

Beaton used his camera, his ambition and his larger-than-life personality to mingle with a flamboyant and rebellious group of artists, writers, socialites and partygoers. These 'Bright Young Things' captured the spirit of the roaring twenties and thirties as they cut a dramatic swathe through the epoch. Beaton quickly developed a reputation for his beautiful, often striking and fantastic photographs, which culminated in his portraits of Queen Elizabeth in 1939. More than a photographer, Beaton became a society fixture in his own right.

In a series of themed chapters, covering Beaton's first self-portraits and earliest sitters to his time at Cambridge and as principle society photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair, over 60 leading figures who sat for him are profiled and the dazzling parties, pageants and balls of the period are brought to life. Among this glittering cast are Beaton's socialite sisters Baba and Nancy Beaton, Stephen Tennant, the Mitfords, Siegfried Sassoon, Evelyn Waugh and Daphne Du Maurier. Beaton's photographs are complemented by a wide range of letters, drawings and ephemera and contextualised by artworks created by those in his circle, including Christopher Wood, Rex Whistler and Henry Lamb.

“The 'Bright Young Things,' as a flamboyant group of artists, writers and socialites came to be known, are shown here in all their decadence, boundless creativity and utter fashionability.”

'An upmarket coffee table affair. Robin Muir… does a neat job of introducing the rich, famous and posh characters whom the young Beaton photographed, and their world of parties, pageants, charity matinees, evenings of tableaux vivants' - The Times
'A brilliant selection of snaps of Cecil dandified and dressed up, as well as his celebrity portraits, which appear here alongside pages from his scrapbooks, quick, elegant sketches of costume ideas and Muir’s fascinating biographies of the people Beaton photographed and partied with. (????) ' - Daily Express
'Beaton adored being at the centre of this wild and frivolous world. He made friends everywhere.' - Tatler
'Snapshot of a beautiful brittle world… A great deal of care has been taken by Robin Muir to dunk you fully into this world.' - Daily Telegraph

Robin Muir is a Contributing Editor to British Vogue. His books include Vogue 100: A Century of Style (2016), Under the Influence: John Deakin, Photography and the Lure of Soho (2014), Vogue Model: The Faces of Fashion (2013), Vogue Covers: On Fashion's Front Page (co-author, 2009), In Camera: Snowdon and the World of British Art (2007), The World's Most Photographed (2005), People in Vogue: A Century of Portrait Photography (co-author, 2005), Norman Parkinson: Portraits in Fashion (2004) and David Bailey: Chasing Rainbows (2001).

Thomas Perrsonis a creative director, editor and brand consultant based in London. He was the founder, editor-in-chief and and Creative Director of Acne Paper (2004-2014) and founder of Luncheon, a style and culture biannual launched in 2016.

The stylish and extravagant world of the "Bright Young Things" of 1920s and '30s London, seen through the eye of renowned British photographer Cecil Beaton In 1920s and '30s Britain, Cecil Beaton used his camera and his larger-than-life personality to mingle with that flamboyant and rebellious group of artists, writers, socialites and partygoers who became known as the "Bright Young Things." Famously fictionalized by the likes of Evelyn Waugh (in Vile Bodies ), Anthony Powell and Henry Green, these men and women cut a dramatic swathe through the epoch and embodied its roaring spirit. In a series of themed chapters, covering Beaton's first self-portraits and earliest sitters to his time at Cambridge and as principle society photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair , over 50 leading figures who sat for Beaton are profiled and the dazzling parties, pageants and balls of the period are brought to life. Among this glittering cast are Beaton's socialite sisters Baba and Nancy Beaton, Stephen Tennant, Siegfried Sassoon, Evelyn Waugh and Daphne du Maurier. Beaton's photographs are complemented by a wide range of letters, drawings, book jackets and ephemera, and contextualised by artworks created by those in his circle, including Christopher Wood, Rex Whistler and Henry Lamb. Cecil Beaton (1904-80) is one of the most celebrated British portrait photographers of the 20th century and is renowned for his images of elegance, glamour and style. Beaton quickly developed a reputation for his striking and fantastic photographs, which culminated in his portraits of Queen Elizabeth in 1939. Also well known as a diarist, Beaton became a society fixture in his own right. His influence on portrait photography was profound and lives on today in the work of many contemporary photographers.

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