BEATON, Cecil
 
Portrait of Robert Kennedy; original drawing in pencil on paper, 1961.
 
Description
 
Minor handling marks to paper, otherwise bright and clean and excellent throughout.
Framed and glazed with UV resistant art glass.
Cecil Beaton was associated with Robert F. Kennedy and captured a notable portrait of Kennedy and his wife, Ethel, during the early 1960s, in a formal black-and-white photograph. The image, frequently featured in Condé Nast archives, highlights the couple in a close, formal setting, reflecting Beaton’s stylised portraiture of American political figures. Beaton’s career was defined by a seamless transition from documenting the rebellious "Bright Young Things" to crafting the definitive visual identities of icons like Audrey Hepburn and the British Royal Family. Influenced by the surrealism of Salvador Dalí and the clean classicism of contemporaries like George Hoyningen-Huene, he pioneered a theatrical, "artificial" style that used elaborate sets and floral motifs to elevate portraiture into high art. By blending his work as a Vogue photographer with Oscar-winning costume design, Beaton remained a dominant cultural force for six decades, eventually capturing the raw energy of the 1960s through portraits of the Rolling Stones.
Sheet, 21.9x34.8cm; external, 25.3x38.6cm.