How Cecil Beaton offended the Queen Mother spectator.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from spectator.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
When Hugo Vickers was commissioned in 1980 to write the authorised biography of Cecil Beaton, he was granted privileged access to the photographer’s friends and staff and all his private diaries and letters.
Many of Beaton’s circle had been the ‘Bright Young Things’ of the 1920s. Others were louche aristocrats, renowned former beauties, movie stars and writers, not to mention Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother.
By then in their 70s and 80s, most welcomed the chance to gossip. Over the next five years, Vickers asked them about everything from Cecil’s homosexuality to his extraordinary costume designs for My Fair Lady and his bizarre love affair with Greta Garbo. Many of their recollections duly appeared in Vickers’ best-selling biography.
The
Times reports that it was recently discovered that Laveryâs 1938 oil painting, âThe Viscountess Castlerosse, Palm Springsâ, features the socialiteâs much-admired legs twice in one scene. Lady Castlerosse is pictured seated with her legs dangling off a diving board, while to the left of the painting a second figure is visible with their legs crossed on a bench, their face just beyond the range of the picture. It had previously been thought that the second figure was either a Hollywood director, or the Viscountessâs brother, Edward Delevingne (known as Dudley to his friends and family) â the grandfather of Chloe, Poppy and Cara.