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Lot 434AR

SITWELL, EDITH (1887-1964)

8 May 2013, 13:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £1,250 inc. premium

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SITWELL, EDITH (1887-1964)

PORTRAIT BY CECIL BEATON (1904-1980), photograph, silver print, Edith Sitwell arranged as an altarpiece-like apotheosis, lying diagonally in state (as it were), wearing her splendid brocade dress, a single ring on her left hand, and with attendant wooden cherubim, the floor being black and white linoleum tiles that Beaton had acquired for just such a purpose, Sotheby's copyright label and '1/50' on verso, framed and glazed, size of image 23 x 16 inches (60 x 40 cm), overall size 30 x 23 inches (76 x 60 cm), 1927 (printed April 2009)

AN ICONIC IMAGE OF EDITH SITWELL. The Sitwells were important friends and subjects for Beaton. He had asked a friend 'What on earth can I become it life?' 'Just become a friend of the Sitwells and waits and see what happens,' had been the reply. As well as being among his most obliging sitters and social mentors, the Sitwells did much to promote Beaton's career. Beaton though Edith 'entirely beautiful, a most wonderful aesthetic object.' An example of this image is in the National Portrait Gallery.

REFERENCES: The Sitwells and the Arts of the 1920s and 1930s, NPG, 1994; John Pearson, Facades, 1978.

Additional information

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A Presentation Copy of Kennedy's First Book to Spencer Tracy. Kennedy, John F. 1917-1963. Why England Slept. New York: Wilfred Funk, Inc., 1940.

Signed to Spencer Tracy 1952 Hemingway, Ernest. 1899-1961. The Old Man and the Sea, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952.

CORNELIUS, MATTHEWS, editor. 1817-1889. The Enchanted Moccasins and Other Legends of the American Indians.

CALEPINO, AMBROGIO. 1435-1511. [Dictionarium.] Calepinus Ad librum. Mos est putidas.... Venice: Peter Liechtenstein, January 3, 1509.

HEARN, LAFCADIO. 1850-1904. [Japanese Fairy Tales.] Philadelphia: Macrae-Smith, [But Tokyo: T. Hasegawa,] [c.1931].

HEMINGWAY, ERNEST. 1899-1961. PUTNAM, SAMUEL, translator. Kiki's Memoirs. Paris: Sign of the Black Manikin, 1930.