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The Arts Intel Report

Cecil Beaton

May 27 – Sept 12, 2020
3-5 Swallow St, Mayfair, London W1B 4DE, United Kingdom

The Cecil Beaton exhibition at London’s National Portrait Gallery, “Bright Young Things,” was yet another coronavirus closure. But there’s still a chance to see a bit of Beaton at Huxley-Parlour. This man of many gifts moved intrepidly among glittering aristos and rising stars of fashion and the arts, producing photographic portraiture that remains inventive, romantic, and perceptive about beauty. The English interwar years sans Cecil? The royal sittings without Beaton behind the lens? Impossible to imagine. —L.J.

Nancy James, photographed by Cecil Beaton in 1955 © Sotheby’s Cecil Beaton Archive. Image courtesy of Huxley-Parlour Gallery.