Photographer, fashion illustrator, Oscar-winning costume designer, social caricaturist, and writer Cecil Beaton (1904–1980) was an extraordinary force in twentieth-century British and American creative culture. This exhibition, the first dedicated to Beaton’s fashion and portrait photography, showcases his influential work from the 1920s through the post-war years. Featuring portraits of iconic figures including Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret, Truman Capote, Francis Bacon, and Salvador Dalí, the exhibition explores Beaton’s role in shaping celebrity, fashion, and royal imagery. Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World is organized by the National Portrait Gallery, London and presented by the San Diego Museum of Art.
Cast Members in costume for My Fair Lady, 1963 by Cecil Beaton, Cecil Beaton Studio Archive, © Condé Nast