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4 unusual facts about Cecil Beaton


Château de Groussay

Cecil Beaton's inspiration for Henry Higgins' library in My Fair Lady was the library at Groussay.

Diana Souhami

Greta and Cecil examines the romantic relationship between Greta Garbo and Cecil Beaton.

Nathaniel Merrill

His first major critical successes at the Met came during the 1960–1961 season when he directed the new staging of L'elisir d'amore and staged a brand new production of Puccini's Turandot that was designed by Cecil Beaton.

The Swimming Pool Library

Will takes Phil to visit Staines, a successful studio photographer who echoes Cecil Beaton.


Martin Battersby

In the 1940s he worked for a short time as assistant set designer to Cecil Beaton and worked on the 1945 production of Lady Windermere's Fan.

Radclyffe Hall

The British composer and bon-vivant Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners, wrote a roman à clef girls' school story entitled The Girls of Radcliff Hall, in which he depicts himself and his circle of friends, including Cecil Beaton and Oliver Messel, as lesbian schoolgirls at a school named "Radcliff Hall".

Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum

Alongside commercial work for Wedgwood Pottery, Shell Petroleum, Guinness and The London Underground, he also painted many members of London’s fashionable Bright Young Things - including writer Edith Sitwell and photographer Cecil Beaton.

Tilly Losch

Her earliest works were self-portraits, but she later created portraits of friends such as Anita Loos, Lotte Lenya, and Kurt Weill, and she received encouragement from Cecil Beaton.

Tošo Dabac

In 1952, his works were shown at an international exhibition in Lucerne, along with others such as Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank and André Kertész.


see also

Ashcombe House

Ashcombe House, Wiltshire, occupied by Guy Ritchie, and previously by Sir Cecil Beaton, and Madonna.

Such, Such Were the Joys

Orwell headed the school prize list in 1916 with Classics, while Cyril Connolly won the English prize, Cecil Beaton won the drawing prize, Walter Christie won the history prize and Rupert Lonsdale won the scripture prize.