LEWIS MORLEY (b.1925)

This celebrated study of a naked Christine Keeler astride a chair became the immediate and seemingly eternal defining image of the Profumo scandal of 1963. The story is all too well known -- at least to a certain generation -- of how a verbal deception in the House of Commons on the part of minister John Profumo regarding an alleged liaison with Miss Keeler prompted first his own resignation and ultimately the collapse of the Conservative government. Less well known are the circumstances surrounding the making of this now iconic image. Morley had been commissioned to make publicity shots of Keeler in relation to a proposed film. Her contract stipulated that these should include nudes. He cleverly devised a ploy -- using the chair as a prop -- that would emphasise her sexuality through her pose, yet would be provocative rather than revealing. Miss Keeler has written: 'I like the photographs. There is a mystery there, a mask on my face. I suppose that is because so much had happened and so much remained hidden, secret.' (The Truth at Last, p.201)