Barely Venice appears on the horizon, we know that we are facing a city that overflows with uniqueness. This singularity has not been alien to travelers and photographers , even less for Cecil Beaton , who portrayed her with the haunting vision of him on each of his trips.
Over time, and thanks to the collection Fashion Eye louis vuitton , those files of the british photographer managed to perpetuate themselves in a new book that reveals an extremely intimate and carefree facet of Venice.
Cecil Beaton's Fashion Eye book treasures intimate portraits of Venice.
"Who does not like to travel? We are all Marco Polo under the skin, dreaming of distant voyages with all the fervor of a 19th-century romantic," he once mentioned. Cecil Beaton in his 1957 book, The Face of the World.
Photographer, illustrator, costume designer, set designer and art director They are just some of the artistic aspects that he outlined throughout his life under his own interpretation of his beauty. Born in 1904 in Britain, Cecil Beaton he endlessly conceived costumes, stage sets and portraits that were immortalized in the pages of Vogue.
And although as indicated in the book , “He never got tired of his hometown, London , and indeed had an idyllic vision of the English countryside—finding great joy in his country residences, first Ashcombe and then Broadchalke— his life was a constant journey” , where the most intrinsic passion and inspiration were always intertwined to narrate visual journeys in the most magnificent cities.
Venice through the lens of Cecil Beaton.
In this particular book, which has as its protagonist Venice and its characters , Cecil has portrayed encounters with talented figures who made up high society in the 1930s and 1950s, with evocative photographic records of costume balls , social events, and endless opportunities in which the essence of venice.
Princess Marella Caracciolo de Castagneto, Maharani Gayatri Devi, Rajmata of Jaipur, Princess Gayatri Devi of Cooch Behar, Lilia Ralli, Franca Esposito and Princess Colonna are some of the personalities who Cecil I photograph together with the 'Great Ball of the Century' on September 3, 1951 at the Palazzo Labia, where they went in gondolas Orson Welles, Salvador and Gala Dalí, Alexis de Redé, the Marquis of Cuevas, Barbara Hutton and Leonor Fini. The suits, designed by Christian Dior, Pierre Cardin, Nina Ricci, Jacques Fath and Salvador Dalí, were governed by the theme: the time of Longhi and Casanova.
'The Great Dance of the Century' portrayed by Cecil Beaton.
In 1974, the british photographer he lost the use of his right hand as a result of a stroke. Fragile and concerned with protecting his life's work and giving it even wider recognition, Beaton decided to part with the archives from him, except for his royal family portraits.
In an early series of scrapbooks of his, he enclosed small format portraits of your friends along with photographs chronicling his activities, often in the form of contact sheets. Many of them have been selected for reproduction in this volume.
“While always very much in tune with the present, sensitive to the ever-evolving nature of fashion, the beaton's vision was constantly enriched by his appreciation of history and his sensitivity to certain stylistic codes”, express in the book Fashion Eye.
From the portraits of the personalities of the time, to dreamy corners, Cecil Beaton without a doubt he has captured a magical world, a world that has prospered for centuries in a city that remains extraordinary.