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Cecil Beaton
Princess Natalie Paley By Cecil Beaton
1940

Name: Princess Natalie Paley By Cecil Beaton
Brand: Cecil Beaton

Cecil Beaton

Cecil Beaton developed a distinctive style of photography where the subject was immersed in backgrounds made of unusual materials such as paper-mâché or aluminum foil. A socialite who rubbed elbows with royalty, celebrities and the wealthy aristocracy, the British photographer captured some of the most famous names of his time.

Beaton was born in London in 1904 to a successful lumber merchant and amateur actor. He received his first camera as a gift at age 11. Beaton later attended St. John’s College in Cambridge and studied art, history and architecture. He dropped out in 1925 and went to work in the family lumber business, but his free time was spent absorbed in photography.

Beaton befriended Sir Osbert Sitwell, who was captivated by his photographs and funded his first exhibition. It was an immediate sensation, leading to work with major magazines.

With a photography contract from Condé Nast, Beaton left for New York. By the end of the 1920s, he had worked as a staff photographer for Vanity Fair and Vogue. He continued to cultivate his unique portraiture style and published his work in several books. One of his greatest achievements was a commission from the British Royal Family in 1939, a relationship which endured for decades. During World War II, he served as a wartime photographer in Africa and East Asia.

After the war, Beaton returned to private portrait commissions. He also began designing costumes and sets for theater and the silver screen, winning an Academy Award for Best Costume Design for Gigi and awards for costume design and art direction for My Fair Lady. He also won costume design Tony awards for the Broadway shows Quadrille, My Fair Lady, Saratoga and Coco.

Beaton designed the sets and costumes for a production of the opera Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and then at Covent Garden, London. His diaries, which were scrapbooks of his life and interests, have garnered wide interest, and several volumes of them have been published.

On 1stDibs, find Cecil Beaton’s photography, drawings and watercolors, paintings and more.

1950s Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

Jack L. Gray
Mid Century Modern Framed Ram Boat Signed Oil Signed Jack Lorimer Gray 1950s 60s, Circa 1950s

$75,000

H 29.25 in W 41 in

The Infant Saint John the Baptist with a Lamb

Located in New York, NY

Provenance: James Byrnes, Los Angeles (1917-2011) Giusto Le Court was born Josse or Justus de Corte in the Flemish city of Ypres. His father Jean was a sculptor and presumably his earliest training was with him before he entered the studio of Cornelis van Mildert. The young artist was clearly influenced by the dominant Flemish sculptor of the time, Artus Quellinus the Elder, with whom he may have worked on the decoration of the Amsterdam City Hall. Following the lead of many northern artists he travelled to Rome, perhaps more than once, before settling in Venice around 1655. It was there, as one of a colony of expatriate artists, that he made his name as a sculptor. One of his first Venetian commissions was for the monument to Alvise Mocenigo in the Church of San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti, where Le Court sculpted the marble figures of Strength and Justice. He also collaborated with the celebrated architect Baldassare Longhena, most famously for the high altar of Santa Maria della Salute, where he carved the multi-figured altarpiece depicting the Queen of Heaven Expelling the Plague. The present marble sculpture depicts the infant Saint John the Baptist, reclining, wearing his traditional hair-shirt, embracing a lamb, and holding the bottom of his attribute, a reed cross. Attached to his shirt is a baptismal cup, with which he would become associated later in his life. Veneration of the infant Saint John the Baptist was prevalent throughout Italy and images of the saint in childhood—often called “Giovannino,” or little John...

Category

17th Century Renaissance Sculptures

Materials

Marble

The Infant Saint John the Baptist with a Lamb, after 1655

$30,000

H 21.5 in W 14 in D 11 in

Seven Scenes from the Life of Apollo

By Jacopo Guarana

Located in New York, NY

Attributed to Jacopo Guarana (Verona 1720 – 1808 Venice) Canvas, unsigned The Deeds of Apollo Provenance: Suida-Manning Collection These seven scenes are brilliant evocations o...

Category

18th Century and Earlier Baroque Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Jacopo Guarana
Seven Scenes from the Life of Apollo

$50,000

H 4.75 in W 11.125 in

The 1564 Medici Danti Map of California

By Fra Egnazio Danti

Located in New York, NY

Florentine, Probably Seventeenth Century Titled L’ultime parti note nel Indie occidentali Dated on the edge of the cartouche: “M.D. LXIII. M.AG” [1564…the month of August] In the 1560s Cosimo I de’Medici, the powerful Duke of Florence, undertook a major renovation of the Palazzo Vecchio, the venerable palace that to this day dominates the city at the Piazza della Signoria. For the Sala della Guardaroba, literally the wardrobe room, but in fact the storeroom of the Duke’s most precious holdings, Cosimo conceived of a grand decorative project that was to reflect in one space the entire cosmos --both an indication of the Duke’s ambition and an allusion to his name. The plan, supervised by Giorgio Vasari, involved the construction of walnut cabinets to contain the Medici treasures, on the outside doors of which were to be placed large hand-painted maps specially commissioned to document and illustrate the current knowledge of the world. Portraits of famous men were to decorate the tops of the cabinets and two large globes –one representing the terrestrial world, the other celestial—were to descend from openings in the ceiling. The commission for the maps, inspired by Ptolemy’s Geographia, was given to the celebrated mathematician and cosmographer, Fra Egnazio Danti (Perugia 1536-1585 Alatri). Fifty-three maps were ultimately created. Thirty were conceived and executed by Danti between 1563 and 1575. The remaining twenty-three were completed by Stefano Bonsignori between 1576 and 1686. They remain in place in Florence in the room for which they were created. The present work is an exact-size painted, drawn and inscribed copy of Danti’s map of California...

Category

17th Century Old Masters Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Paper, Ink, Watercolor, Gouache, Pen

The 1564 Medici Danti Map of California

$135,000

H 44.625 in W 38.625 in

My Other Side

By Frank Arnold

Located in Fresno, CA

“My Other Side” is 48”x 36”. This is an earlier piece by Arnold from the estate of a late collector of his work. This piece is predominantly shades of red from light to almost black....

Category

Early 2000s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Frank Arnold
My Other Side

$38,800

H 48 in W 36 in D 2 in

New Move

By Frank Arnold

Located in Fresno, CA

"New Move 8" Oil on Canvas is a mix of blues and greens with chrome yellow accents. Frank Arnold is thought by many to be one of the foremost abstract figurative painters and sculpto...

Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Frank Arnold
New Move, 2022

$88,800

H 72 in W 60 in D 2 in

Three Women

Located in Fresno, CA

“Three Women” is an early work of Artist F. John Sierra whose career spans over four decades. He has produced images of the people, lifestyles and challeng...

Category

1980s Impressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Color Pencil

F. John Sierra
Three Women, 1984

$1,980

H 23.75 in W 17.875 in

Ram s Head Contemporary Plaster Sculpture with Green Patina Ancient Rome Style

Located in Firenze, IT

This contemporary plaster sculpture of a ram’s head is inspired by the art of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece with a reference to Neoclassicism and Neoclassical period old masters, when the discoveries of archaeological sites became the focal point in art history between the 18th and 19th century. The artist is able to attribute incredible details to this work of art featuring a majestic appearance due to its large curling ridged horns. This animal figurative work of art is sculpted on the round, the artist took inspiration both from his imagination and archaic reminiscences. He modeled the inert chalk creating an animal with very real facial expression and incredible realistic features with intricate detailed head. This sculpture is the plaster cast hand modeled by the artist that served him as a reference model to create a bronze sculpture with the lost wax technique, also the bronze version is on sale on my page. So it represents the first phase of a fascinating and long process of creating sculptural art, a studio piece made as a maquette before a bronze version was cast. The present aries' head sculpture has been painted to simulate the green patina that archaeological metal sculptures take over the centuries. Two green patina sculptures...

Category

2010s Contemporary Still-life Sculptures

Materials

Plaster, Lacquer, Paint, Chalk

Pablo Simunovic
Ram s Head Contemporary Plaster Sculpture with Green Patina Ancient Rome Style, 2019

$1,557

H 7.88 in W 13 in D 13 in

Urban Abstraction (ripped off posters) Italian Expressionist Painting on Canvas

By Andrea Spinelli

Located in Firenze, IT

The present work of art titled "Urban Abstraction (ripped off posters)" is part of a series of paintings that the artist composed in the 1980s and 1990s inspired by the observation of the urban reality of those years. The artist take the cue from his walks in Florence, both in the center and in the suburbs, and by the observation of billboards and posters scattered throughout the city. The mass of information, colors, messages and words were carried on the canvas with acrylic colors, ideally reconstructing the tears and overlaps of all the information and advertising contained on these huge sheets of paper that invade our cities. The geometric lines are overlaid with jagged lines, overlaps and color dripping and also the choice in the color palette, with different shades of white, gray, rose, orange red and blue helps in rendering the result of the tears and ripped paper. The result is a beautiful multicolored modern abstract canvas, both aesthetically and ethically, with many rich layers of color, texture and expression in which the artist leaves his own message. The painting is housed in a simple modern white lacquer wood frame. Andrea Spinelli...

Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Andrea Spinelli
Urban Abstraction (ripped off posters) Italian Expressionist Painting on Canvas, 1980- 1990

$1,437

H 20.87 in W 32.68 in D 1.19 in

Italian 18th Century Oval Religious Oil on Canvas Painting with Saint Dominic

By Francesco de Mura

Located in Firenze, IT

This beautiful Italian 18th Century old masters oil painting on oval canvas with giltwood frame is attributed to Solimena and features a religious scene. In this splendid oval-shaped painting are depicted Saint Dominic...

Category