Cecil Beaton’s Garden Party – you’re invited

This summer, the Garden Museum will present the first exhibition to explore Sir Cecil Beaton’s (1904-1980) passion for gardens and flowers, and the inspiration that they provided him in his creative work as a photographer, designer and artist.

Best known for his iconic and glamorous fashion photography, Sir Cecil Beaton had a bouquet of creative talents: he was also an accomplished costume and set designer for film, theatre and ballet; a gifted painter and illustrator; and in 1937 he was appointed court photographer to the British Royal Family. Cecil Beaton’s Garden Party will be the first exhibition to examine the common thread weaving through all aspects of Beaton’s artistic work: gardens and flowers.

Tracing Beaton’s horticultural journey through his gardens at Ashcombe House and Reddish House in Wiltshire, the exhibition will comprise photographs, paintings, drawings, costume and set design, many of which have never been publicly displayed before. It will include Beaton’s personal diaries, photographs of friends and family gathering in his gardens, opera and ballet costume sketches and dresses of his own design.

In looking to his gardens, Cecil Beaton’s Garden Party will explore the distinct role flowers played in developing Beaton’s creative practice; from pioneering the use of painted and fresh flowers as backdrops for fashion photography and Royal portraits, to lavish floral installations created for parties with flowers from his own gardens, to the famous floral costumes worn by Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady (1964).

Beaton created floral displays from a young age: for his family; in his rooms at Cambridge University; and for the society wedding of his sister Nancy Beaton, when he collaborated with floral designer Constance Spry. This fascination with flowers informed his creative practice as a photographer and he would often incorporate fresh flowers into his Vogue fashion shoots, as seen in photographs in the exhibition including a portrait of model Penelope Tree from 1970. A selection of Royal portraits of Queen Elizabeth II (then Princess Elizabeth), the Queen Mother, and Princess Margaret will illustrate how he imaginatively incorporated painted backdrops and fresh flowers and encouraged them to pose outside to provide a fresh and powerful new look to images of the monarchy.

The exhibition will also explore Beaton’s work as a designer for opera and ballet, and his long professional relationship with choreographer Frederick Ashton, Founder Choreographer of The Royal Ballet. Beaton’s understanding of plants and their forms inspired the fresh and lifelike nature of his designs, with careful consideration to floral form, colours and materials.

On display will be his original costume design illustrations for Ashton’s ballets Les Sirènes and Apparitions, as well as a headdress worn by ballerina Margot Fonteyn in Apparitions and a costume worn in Marguerite and Armand. As an official war photographer for the British Ministry of Information during World War Two, he became fascinated by bamboo gardens in China, which inspired his set design for the opera Turandot. Never before exhibited illustrations and a model of this design will be featured in the exhibition, on loan from the Royal Opera House.

Beaton was a keen and enthusiastic gardener. At Ashcombe House, where he moved in 1930, the garden provided flowers to decorate his dinner parties and weekend social gatherings. Beaton’s personal diaries will illustrate the special relationship he developed with his first garden. It also became the backdrop and inspiration for Beaton’s ‘Fête Champêtre’ in 1937, a theatrical fancy dress summer party attended by 300 guests, including many of the ‘Bright Young Things’. For this grand gathering hosted in the garden at Ashcombe, he created a pastoral pleasure ground, with waiters in animal masks and a marquee decorated with flowers. Beaton had three costume changes, designed in collaboration with the Oscar-winning costumier Karinska. A highlight of the exhibition will be the Surrealist rose coat he designed and wore as a party host, presented alongside photographs of the party from the National Portrait Gallery and the Condé Nast archive.

Later Beaton moved to Reddish House, where he lived from 1947 until his death in 1980. Beaton spent many years developing the gardens, in which he created large flower beds and areas for cutting gardens, built an indoor winter garden and purchased adjoining land to create a water garden. The house was frequented by countless of Beaton’s celebrity friends, and he would often photograph them among the flowers. In particular, a portrait of Bianca Jagger will feature in the exhibition.

Cecil Beaton’s Garden Party is curated by Garden Museum Curator Emma House and will be designed by artist and designer Luke Edward Hall, who has been researching Cecil Beaton’s gardens and work for many years. He will develop an exhibition design which draws together Beaton’s gardens and professional practice. The museum will produce an accompanying exhibition catalogue.