Auction details
4:00 PM PT - Jun 2nd, 2007
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Portrait of Mick Jagger painted for Cecil Beaton's Lefevre gallery
exhibition in 1966, entitled "The Singer". Signed by the artist. Original gold leaf frame. A record of the piece is held at National Portrait Gallery, London, who are the custodians of the Beaton painting collection. (Vendor had a famous boutique on the King's Road, London with an international celebrity clientele and acquired this piece privately in the late 1970s) Measurements: Framed - 32" x 25.5" (81 x 65 cm), Unframed - 26" x 20" (65 x 50 cm) Sir Cecil Beaton (1904-1980), was a photographer, painter and writer and was in love with the worlds of high society, theatre, and glamour. He had a>fully-fledged career as the foremost fashion and portrait photographer of his day, including his association with The British Royal Family. Beaton worked as a staff photographer for Vanity Fair and Vogue in London, Paris and New York, in addition to photographing celebrities in Hollywood. He also worked as a stage and film designer, including the musicals Gigi (1958) and My Fair Lady (1965). Beaton's long and varied career and his ability to attune himself to changing fashions enabled him to capture a diverse range of subjects on camera, from the Sitwells to the Rolling Stones, from Salvador Dalν to Francis Bacon, from Audrey Hepburn to Marilyn Monroe, The Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth. The painting and Beaton's Lefevre Gallery exhibition (27th January - 26th February 1966) is well documented: "Don't let's talk about old people looking young, but about young people looking old. It's so much more>interesting." The Lefevre Gallery was established on 26th April 1926 by Mr Alex Reid and Monsieur Earnest Lefevre - two of the most eminent dealers in Modern Art in the UK at the time. Alex Reid trained in Paris with Theo Van Gough and lodged with Theo's brother Vincent. The Lefevre Gallery confirm that the work was bought directly from the artist by the Gallery and was sold by the Gallery on 9th February 1966. It is listed in the exhibition catalogue. The exhibition featured works depicting several sixties' personalities with whom Beaton was known to associate, including Picasso. Jagger's friendship with Beaton is well documented as Beaton was intrigued by The Rolling Stones and Jagger in particular. Hugo Vickers' 1985 Cecil Beaton: The Authorised Biography (Part 8 - The Swinging Years 1965-70: Chapter 36 - Growing Old, Staying Young) gives a most telling account: [ ] Beaton and Jagger met at the Boudin Ball at Christie's. Cecil, dressed in a white broad-lapelled coat, was heard to say, "I'd like to meet Mick Jagger. Marvellous face. Reminds me of Nijinsky." [ ] Cecil went to Marrakesh [ ] he moved to the Mamounia Hotel. Suddenly, to his delight, three Rolling Stones arrived, surrounded by their vast entourage of hangers-on, etc,[ ] [ ] Mick Jagger was absorbed in his affair with Marianne Faithfull and had flown from Paris. Keith Richard, Brian Jones and his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg had driven together through Europe [ ] "I was fascinated by the thin concave lines of his body, legs, arms, mouth almost too large, but he is beautiful and ugly, feminine and masculine, a 'sport', a rare phenomenon." [ ] Cecil hijacked him for a photographic session in the trees and midday sun, thus affording him some much-needed shadows: "He was a Tarzan of Piero di Cosimo. Lips of a fantastic roundness [ ] As a model he is a natural." Cecil and Mick Jagger were natural friends, both keenly drawn to the lure of success [ ] "This Beaton oil portrait echoes the colours of the psychedelic era and artistic explosion of London's mid-'60s, with Beaton representing the Establishment and Jagger representing Rock & Roll. Later, Sir Cecil Beaton and Sir Mick Jagger." ImagesClick on thumbnails to see larger images: 
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