Gucci's Bright Young Things: Runway

CECIL

REX

STEPHEN

SIEGFRIED

be still my Beaton heart...

Yes, there's more, and no doubt more to come... but these previously unpublished photographs by Cecil Beaton in the Telegraph will get your heart racing. they did mine.

 Edith Olivier as Queen Elizabeth I, Wilton House, 19 July 1932. by Cecil Beaton

my favorite by far, Edith Olivier as ER I.
Edith is a great inspiration to me. Known to some- primarily as Rex Whistler's other woman-with her grand passion for Rex, Edith became his closest friend and confidante.Along with Cecil Beaton they formed a sort of menage a trois during the heady days of his Ashcombe- before the war brought their idyll to a fatal halt.

For others, she might just be Sir Laurence Olivier's cousin, & for others- Mayor of Wilton.
Still others may know her as author-and it is here she makes a profound impact on me. I find her writing to be-of the period-meaning before the War made such a profound and utter impact on the psyche of Britain. It's quite simply- poetry. I'm currently reading her Four Victorian Ladies of Wiltshire. It includes Mrs. Percy Wyndham, mistress of Clouds, member of the Souls, and mother to the sisters painted in Sargent's elegant portrait of the Wyndam Sisters. More about Mrs. Wyndham via Edith Olivier in another posting. For the moment-it's Beaton and and costume balls and country houses-and my heart, in the Telegraph, Here.

the brilliance of Beaton

The Countess of Pembroke (Claire) in the Double Cube Room, Wilton House, October 1971, Cecil Beaton

REX WHISTLER in THE MASQUE part Three

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The last of three parts of Rex Whistler's theatre designs in THE MASQUE, opens with the artist's brother Laurence remembering theatrical impresario Sir Charles Cochran attending the Tate Gallery murals in November 1927 and Sir Charles vowing not to depart until he had 'secured the artist's address.' Rex would contribute to four Cochran revues and many other theatricals for the stage-his first being the programme for John Milton's Comus in 1930.

Rex would recheck his history books for accuracy in scenes such as Victoria Regina which takes place in 1842.

Rex's artistry did not stop with his beautifully detailed drawings-much time was spent as rehearsals started in front of the curtain making notes-corrections-remedies-and suggestions.

Drawings of Rex Whistler's Costumes in MASQUE part 3

detail drawing for La Spectre de la Rose

I felt I found a little treasure in these Masque pamphlets-the last of the three with its bright pink cover seems hardly to have been viewed. As I open its pages-32 in all-it is mostly filled with pictures of Rex Whistler's drawings. A few words offered up as introduction by his brother Laurence to the delicate airy lines laid out with great assurance by the artist. Whether it is Rex's set design, his Tate murals or his paintings at Plas Newydd-we are invited to enter-to believe-and- to dream.



Whistler's first for the theatre- a programme for the play COMUS.

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Part Two, Designs for the Theatre by Rex Whistler

in THE MASQUE
(as promised)
for Part One see our last post here

Rex Whistler photographed by Cecil Beaton, from Part Two of The Masque.

Another long look at Rex Whistler's work for the stage, in Part Two-with eight colour plates and seveteen sepia illustrations-introduced by James Laver.

cover designed by Laurence Whistler with a Rex Whistler's trophy

Laver puts Rex in his own distinct category as artist- "His style was a language which could equally well be spoken in a drawing room, whispered in a boudoir or declaimed from the stage-..." For Laver, Beaton, and his brother Laurence there was no one like Rex.

all pictures from Part Two of The Masque-

(above) sets and costumes from The Rake's Progress, (& below) Le Sprectre de la Rose

Costumes for The Tempest

Love for Love at top-and Victoria Regina, the drop curtain & costumes & sets

Old Music (above)

set & costumes from Streamline,The Private Life of Napoleon Bonaparte

(below) the drop curtain for  The Wise Virgins

& Les Sylphides

and posters announcing the plays

the programme cover from The Sleeping Princess

in attendance -the Royal family inside the Royal Box, at The Sleeping Princess.

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Rex Whistler & The MASQVE, Part 1

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a trove of Rex Whistler Designs for the Theatre, I've found in some little pamphlets called the THE MASQVE. In three parts, the 1947 published pieces include an appreciation by Cecil Beaton and a foreward by Rex's brother Laurence. Rex Whistler designed sets and costumes for the theatre and his drawings are perfectly beautiful-sweet-accurate-& today, poignantly nostalgic.

Beaton writes, In every age one finds certain artists who are not 'modern' in the sense of that age, but who, operating upon some mysterious dialectic of anachronism, bring the style, the with and the values of an earlier age to bear upon their own. Rex Whistler was such an artist: the eighteenth century was his inspiration, but his murals, his designs for the theatre, his book jackets and illustrations form a minor, but peculiarly important, contributions to the taste of the twentieth century. (from The Masqve)

Here are the drawings and designs from Part 1-in The MASQVE.

images 2,3,4 & 5 -Whistler designed the Decor and Costumes for Pride and Prejudice at St. James's Theatre in February 1936, and for Ballerina-Costumes at the Gaiety in October, 1933.



Part 2, and Part 3-to follow on Monday

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