Sir Cecil Beaton (1904-1980)

As one of the most celebrated beauties of her day, Audrey Field (née James) was photographed by Cecil Beaton several times in the 1930s (see lot 310 in the Julians Park and Six Private Collections: Online sale). Beaton included her in his celebrated Book of Beauty, published in 1933, the same year that one of his photographs of Audrey appeared in Vogue. They inevitably moved in the same social circles and Audrey clearly entertained him amongst her friends at her various houses. Amongst Audrey's private albums there is a series of 1935 Beaton sketches of various grandes dames of the day, including Audrey herself and Emerald Cunard, executed on headed paper for Parkside, Englefield Green, in Surrey, which Audrey rented for a short period on her return from the United States following her divorce from Marshall Field III in 1934 (illustrated in the introduction to this catalogue). One can assume that Beaton and Audrey, then Mrs. Audrey Pleydell-Bouverie, remained friends from the 1930s onwards, and indeed in the private collection of the James family there is a charming watercolour sketch of Audrey by Beaton in the Entrance Hall/Drawing Room at Julians Park, dated 1956 (illustrated in the introduction to this catalogue).