Cecil Beaton
Untitled (Shakespearian Still Life), 1935
Vintage Silver Bromide Print
25.3 x 20.2 cms
9 15/16 x 7 15/16 ins
11415
c.1935 Inscribed in the upper boarder B 194-5 Annotated on the reverse. Cecil Beaton's still life photographs of the 1930s are amongst his most surreal and most complex pictures with...
c.1935
Inscribed in the upper boarder B 194-5
Annotated on the reverse.
Cecil Beaton's still life photographs of the 1930s are amongst his most surreal and most complex pictures with their sophisticated spatial arrangements of disparate objects.
In the present work Beaton plays with the gestures of the assorted figures to generate a rhythm that runs through the picture. We travel from the tapestry upwards to the pointing figurine and on to a print of a Shakespearean scene of gesticulating figures. The strong horizontal boarder that bisects the picture is echoed by the strong zig of the space surrounding the print, to set up an art-deco style contrast between strong straight lines and softer forms.
Inscribed in the upper boarder B 194-5
Annotated on the reverse.
Cecil Beaton's still life photographs of the 1930s are amongst his most surreal and most complex pictures with their sophisticated spatial arrangements of disparate objects.
In the present work Beaton plays with the gestures of the assorted figures to generate a rhythm that runs through the picture. We travel from the tapestry upwards to the pointing figurine and on to a print of a Shakespearean scene of gesticulating figures. The strong horizontal boarder that bisects the picture is echoed by the strong zig of the space surrounding the print, to set up an art-deco style contrast between strong straight lines and softer forms.