[]
Your ongoing selection
Asset(s) Assets
Your quote 0

Your selection

Clear selection
{"event":"pageview","page_type1":"catalog","page_type2":"image_page","language":"en","user_logged":"false","user_type":"ecommerce","nl_subscriber":"false"}
{"event":"ecommerce_event","event_name":"view_item","event_category":"browse_catalog","ecommerce":{"items":[{"item_id":"MOU3927726","item_brand":"other","item_category2":"in_copyright","item_category3":"standard","item_category4":"beaton_cecil_1904_80","item_category5":"not_balown","item_list_name":"search_results","item_name":"portrait_of_margaret_duchess_of_argyll_1934_w_c_pencil_on_paper","item_variant":"undefined"}]}}
Metadata Block (Hidden)

Contact us for further help

High res file dimension

Search for more high res images or videos

Portrait of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, 1934 (w/c & pencil on paper)

Portrait of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, 1934 (w/c & pencil on paper)
Asset - General information
Copyright status
In copyright
Independent artist in copyright
Additional Clearance Information
It is your responsibility to clear the Artist’s Copyright - Please contact us for further assistance.
Largest available format 7656 × 10531 px 29 MB
Dimension [pixels] Dimension in 300dpi [mm] File size [MB]
Large 7656 × 10531 px 648 × 892 mm 28.7 MB
title.quality.20 4361 × 5999 px 369 × 508 mm 21.4 MB
Medium 745 × 1024 px 63 × 87 mm 995 KB
Leave the work to our dedicated Account Managers
License details
Your details
*
*
*
*
*
IMAGE number
MOU3927726
Image title
Portrait of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, 1934 (w/c & pencil on paper)
Auto-translated text View Original Source
Artist
Beaton, Cecil (1904-80) / English
View Artist Bio
Location
Private Collection
Medium
watercolour and pencil on paper
Date
1934 AD (C20th AD)
Dimensions
61x45.5 cms
Image description

women of the 20th century, whose elegance propelled her to a position of almost unrivalled celebrity in the United States and Britain. She married first the American stockbroker and amateur golfer Charles Sweeney in 1933. Such was her fame that she was immortalized by Cole Porter in his 1934 Broadway musical ‘Anything Goes’ in the song ‘The Top’; You’re the top; you’re an Arrow collar, You’re the top; you’re a Coolidge dollar, You’re the nimble tread of the feet of Fred Astaire, You’re Mussolini, you’re Mrs. Sweeny… Margaret later married the Duke of Argyll, and seemed content to settle into a life of aristocratic grandeur. However, her awkward personality began, with age, to outshine her famous beauty. Soon the Duke referred to her as ‘S’ – for Satan – and during their divorce proceedings (until recently the costliest ever) a High Court Judge dubbed her “wholly immoral”. Margaret Argyll has found little sympathy outside a small and close circle of friends, of whom Beaton was one. Her biographer concluded; ‘She had known everybody, been everywhere, had every material advantage, been bestowed with legendary good looks. Never had so much fortune been used to achieve so little.’[1] Certainly, she possessed a mastery of acerbic comments; “I don''t think anybody has real style or class anymore. Everyone''s gotten old and fat.” And yet, she was in many ways a symptom of the aristocracy’s inability to adapt to the seismic changes in society after the Second World War. She could neither boil an egg nor make her own bed, and was unable to cope with life outside the confines of wealth and class. Whatever her fame or repute, she remains an icon of twentieth century celebrity. Cecil Beaton is best known as one of the leading photographers of the twentieth century. His society and fashion photographs helped dictate taste and shaped the course of photography. He played a major role in shaping the iconography of Queen Elizabeth II, and was official photographer at the coronation. Beaton was an acute observer of life, from the tiniest detail through to the subtlest characters. It was these observational skills which, when coupled with new and more portable cameras, allowed him to so brilliantly capture the changes in society after the Second World War. He was as equally talented, however, with the brush as with the camera. His watercolours were generally for fashion and theatre designs, and this example is one of few painted portraits, particularly suited to capturing one of the most elegant – and fashion-conscious – women of the age. It confirms that Beaton, in whatever medium, was a portraitist par excellence.

Photo credit
Photo © Philip Mould Ltd, London / Bridgeman Images
Image keywords
1930s / 20th century / art / colour / woman / fashion / portrait / royalty / seated / Princess Margaret (1930-2002) / England / United Kingdom / Europe / house of Windsor

Similar Images