After the incident with Vogue, Beaton's career wasn't doing too well. Then Queen Elizabeth invited him to photograph her at the Buckingham Palace in 1939. The Queen saved his career.
When Beaton was first asked to take pictures of the Queen he thought it was a joke. Eventually he realized it was real and the next day he wen to the place at ten o'clock to decide what rooms to photograph the Queen in and what dresses she should wear.
Beaton was beyond excited to photograph the Queen. He held a high opinion of her.
"I was full of trepidation to know what would happen when the Queen was ready to see me. I, have, by now, such a profound admiration and love for her, that is is inexplicable that before I could have felt it was dreary and dowdy to have the Yorks on the throne... No one could have done the job as well as she and one knows that there is nothing she could not succeed at if sent out for her country. She might even win Hitler to peace!" (Victor, 226)
The entire session was only suppose to last around 20 minutes, but ended up lasting the whole day. Beaton and the Queen hit it off. They hit off so well that Beaton ended up being the royal photographer for the next 40 years.
Susanna Brown, who is the curator of photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London explains the significance of the shoot and how Beaton wasn't the only one being helped by it. "After the huge crisis of the abdication, this was bout reaffirming the position and continuity of the monarchy. He presents the Queen as an exquisite fairy-tale figure. " (Nikkah)
Other photographers presented the Queen as demure and aloof but Beaton (who adored her) wanted to present a different type of Queen, the Queen he saw.
Beaton revealed in his diary "When I entered the gates of Buckingham Palace for the first time... I was determined that my photographs should give some hint of the incandescent complexion, the brilliant thrush-like eyes and radiant smile, which are such important contributions to the dazzling effect she creates in life. I wanted so much that these should be different from the formal, somewhat anonymous-looking photographs... that had until then been taken of the Royal Family." (Nikkah)
When Beaton was first asked to take pictures of the Queen he thought it was a joke. Eventually he realized it was real and the next day he wen to the place at ten o'clock to decide what rooms to photograph the Queen in and what dresses she should wear.
Beaton was beyond excited to photograph the Queen. He held a high opinion of her.
"I was full of trepidation to know what would happen when the Queen was ready to see me. I, have, by now, such a profound admiration and love for her, that is is inexplicable that before I could have felt it was dreary and dowdy to have the Yorks on the throne... No one could have done the job as well as she and one knows that there is nothing she could not succeed at if sent out for her country. She might even win Hitler to peace!" (Victor, 226)
The entire session was only suppose to last around 20 minutes, but ended up lasting the whole day. Beaton and the Queen hit it off. They hit off so well that Beaton ended up being the royal photographer for the next 40 years.
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Queen Elizabeth, Buckingham Palace Garden
Cecil Beaton 1939
Museum no. E.1374-2010
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
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Other photographers presented the Queen as demure and aloof but Beaton (who adored her) wanted to present a different type of Queen, the Queen he saw.
Beaton revealed in his diary "When I entered the gates of Buckingham Palace for the first time... I was determined that my photographs should give some hint of the incandescent complexion, the brilliant thrush-like eyes and radiant smile, which are such important contributions to the dazzling effect she creates in life. I wanted so much that these should be different from the formal, somewhat anonymous-looking photographs... that had until then been taken of the Royal Family." (Nikkah)
Beaton, C. (1939) Queen Elizabeth, Buckingham Palace Garden. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Retrieved from http://www.vam.ac.uk/users/album/16694
Beaton, C., & Vickers, H. (2003). The unexpurgated Beaton: the Cecile Beaton diaries as he wrote them, 1970-1980. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
Nikkah, R. (7 January 2012). How Cecil Beaton save the Queen. The Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/queen-elizabeth-II/8994528/How-Cecil-Beaton-helped-save-the-Queen.html
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