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CECIL BEATON (British, 1904-1980) PORTRAIT OF STEPHEN TENNANT signed "Beaton" in black ink on mount
Currency:USD
Category:Everything Else / Other
Start Price:NA
Estimated At:8,000.00 - 12,000.00 USD
NOT SOLD (BIDDING OVER)
0.00USD+ applicable fees & taxes.
This item WAS NOT SOLD. Auction date was 2002 Apr 15 @ 16:00UTC-08:00 : PST/AKDT
CECIL BEATON (British, 1904-1980) PORTRAIT OF STEPHEN TENNANT signed "Beaton" in black ink on mount below the image vintage gelatin silver print 117/8 x 911/16 in. (30.2 x 24.6 cm) 1927 ESTIMATE: $8,000-12,000 PROVENANCE Sotheby's, london, 1988 Robert Miller Gallery, NEW YORK EXHIBITED NEW YORK, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, RROSE IS A RROSE IS A RROSE: GENDER PERFORMANCE IN PHOTOGRAPHY, January 17-April 27, 1997 (traveled to Andy Warhol Museum, PITTSBURGH, September 17-November 30, 1997) LITERATURE Philippe Garner and David Alan Mellor, CECIL BEATON: PHOTOGRAPHS 1920-1970, New York, 1995, p. 103 (variant illustrated including more from the original negative) Philip Hoare, SERIOUS PLEASURES: THE LIFE OF STEPHEN TENNANT, New York, 1992, cover image and reference plate (both variants) Jennifer Blessing, RROSE IS A RROSE IS A RROSE: GENDER PERFORMANCE IN PHOTOGRAPHY, New York, 1997, p. 38 (illustrated) This photograph depicts one of the Bright Young Things of 1920s British society. An eccentric socialite and blossoming literary figure by age 20, Stephen Tennant cultivated a deliberate relationship with Cecil Beaton, a photographer also at the beginning of his career. In 1926, Tennant longed to receive, as so many in his circle had, the "Beaton treatment." Beaton and Tennant formed a mutual and immediate liking for one another, meeting and corresponding often. In one such letter, Tennant added as a postscript, "I want to be photographed drowned in picturesque rags like this or would it be too funny? A sham moon would be such fun! & your lighting always looks like moonlight anyway & is the loveliest lighting I've ever seen in any photographs." With this he included a sketch of his vision of himself "lying like Ophelia in a pool, hollow-cheeked and eye-shadow'd" (Hoare, p. 67). Throughout the following months, Beaton photographed Tennant often and in a variety of costumes. During these photo-sessions, Beaton captured Tennant in poses that "made of his striking looks an icon, and that helped establish him as a star of society in his own right" (Hoare, p. 75). Beaton, a "portrait" photographer, embellished his subjects' identities instead of simply documenting them, allowing his patrons to transform themselves into outrageous or glorified personalities. This photograph was taken in 1927 (the year Beaton began working regularly for British Vogue), during a photo-session commissioned in celebration of Tennant's 21st birthday. Tennant sits on a stool in front of Beaton's trademark silver-foil background, wearing a dark pinstripe suit. According to Philip Hoare's biography of Tennant, "in a moment of inspiration, he threw on his black leather mackintosh with a fur collar. The effect was electric. There is make-up - a touch of lip gloss, some vaseline on the eye-lids, perhaps - but the effect was not some painted, effeminate creature. Rather, it is an unworldly alien, unused to twentieth-century dress codes, who has appeared in front of the lens, an approximation of what a young man should look like" (Hoare, p. 84). Due to Beaton's bold disregard of gender boundaries, this photograph was included in the acclaimed Rrose is a Rrose is a Rrose: Gender Performance in Photography exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in 1997.
Auction Location:
United States
Previewing Details:
Tuesday April 9, 2002 10:00am to 5:00pm; Wednesday April 10, 2002 10:00am to 5:00pm; Thursday April 11, 2002 10:00am to 5:00pm; Friday April 12, 2002 10:00am to 5:00pm; Saturday April 13, 2002 10:00am to 5:00pm; Sunday April 14, 2002 1:00pm to 5:00pm
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