Cecil Beaton at Home: An Interior Life by Rizzoli International Publications

Contents Early Years Foreword by Hugo Vickers

21 Langland Gardens, London 1903-11

Author’s Introduction

& Temple Court, London 1911-22

Acknowledgements

3 Hyde Park Street, London 1922-26 &

47 Bridge Street, Cambridge 1922-25

61 Sussex Gardens, London 1926-34

12 Rutland Court, London 1935-39

Ashcombe Discovering Ashcombe 1930

Decorating Ashcombe

The Circus Bedroom

Finding Love

Ashcombe Weekends

Fête Champêtre 1937

A Fall From Grace 1938

Farewell to Ashcombe 1945

8 Pelham Place 8 Pelham Place 1939-61

Contents New York New York Hotels 1928-44

Epilogue

The Plaza 1945-49

Notes to the Text

The Sherry-Netherland 1949-54

Photography Credits

The Ambassador 1954-58

Bibliography

The Drake 1958-61

Index

The St Regis 1966-72

8 Pelham Place 8 Pelham Place 1962-75

Reddish House Discovering Reddish 1947

Decorating Reddish

The Drawing Room

The Winter Garden

The Garden

Eileen Hose

Garbo Is Here

Kin Hoitsma

The Painting Studio

Stroke

8 Pelham Place 1939-1960

“Memorials of many violated magazines”

Christian Bérard, enjoying Cecil’s numerous scrapbooks at Ashcombe, suggested that he could make an exciting publication using the same approach. Cecil set to work, combining a wide variety of caricatures, costume drawings and humorous, surreal photomontages, together with his adapted articles from Vogue about current stars and beauties, and essays on his travels abroad in Europe, Russia and South America. Dedicated to Peter Watson, who wrote to say he was “very proud,” Cecil Beaton’s Scrapbook made a perfect portfolio of his abilities and interests. Being an avant-garde, largely photographic work priced at 21 shillings, Cecil thought would limit the book’s appeal, but it sold well when published in 1937. In the book he included a piece about Greta Garbo, the Swedish film star who had become an obsession for him almost from the moment he saw her first film. Born Greta Gustafsson in Stockholm in 1905 and arriving in Hollywood in 1925, Garbo was to be one of the stars of early cinema able to survive the transition from silent to talking pictures to become one of the great film superstars of the 1930s.

ABOVE: Cecil working on his scrapbook at home in Ashcombe, circa summer 1937. OPPOSITE: Original printer’s proof of the cover and inside fly of the dust jacket for Cecil Beaton’s Scrapbook, published 1937. FOLLOWING PAGES: A spread from one of Cecil’s scrapbooks showing his early infatuation with Greta Garbo. Throughout the book he added glitter, retouched eye liner or added huge eyelashes or other adornments to images.

“Ashcombe Sketching Competition”

“During the summer months Rex and I would take our easels out of doors and enter the ‘Ashcombe Sketching Competition’. Edith Olivier, under a green-lined parasol, would judge the results.”

LEFT: Watercolour painting of Ashcombe by Cecil Beaton. ABOVE LEFT: Cecil with Lady Colefax at Ashcombe. Next to Sibyl is Rex’s oil painting of Ashcombe. FOLLOWING PAGE: Ashcombe, painted by Rex Whistler, was one of Cecil’s most treasured possessions, which he later used for the dust jacket of his book Ashcombe – The Story of a Fifteen Year Lease.

“Once they had arrived, the guests were seldom given encouragement or opportunity to relax. Throughout the day there would be some sort of divertissement. I remember going into the studio one Sunday afternoon and feeling surprised to discover Tom Mitford reading a novel. Was it possible he had had enough of the non-stop gossip outside that centred around the events that interested our small world, or why didn’t he want to play Backgammon or Monopoly?” Ashcombe’s popularity as a local attraction amongst country house parties brought unexpected indignities. In January 1937 Cecil’s secretary, Dorothy Joseph, wrote to let him know that a few weeks before, just after Christmas, Lady Margaret Drummond-Hay had been impatient to show her guests the delights of Ashcombe’s unique interior. Finding the Nobles away for the festivities she had broken in through the upstairs bathroom window and proceeded to show her party all over the house. Miss Joseph wondered if they had left the front door open on their way out, suggesting to Cecil that this was now all “beyond a joke”.

TOP, L-R: Actress Tilly Losch, Tom Mitford and Edythe Baker, the studio, Ashcombe, circa 193X. ABOVE: Extract of letter from Tom Mitford to Cecil, circa 193X. RIGHT: Cecil Beaton’s nephew, aged 5, as Robin Hood, 1939.

“Visitors arrived at Ashcombe for paper games, charades and impersonations”

‘‘The visitors to Ashcombe were often to be seen in unconventional garb. I used to encourage my guests to bring fancy costume in their luggage so that I could photograph them against my romantic background. No one need be surprised if my five-year-old nephew ran out of a thicket with bow and arrow dressed as Robin Hood.” © 2016 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.

“My studio must be entirely white” The studio at Ashcombe, in total contrast to the gilded, continental taste of the sitting room, was decorated entirely in tones of white, natural linen and wood. Radical in its stark simplicity, the studio was a daring statement of the ‘moderne.’ Facing south with its enlarged full-length windows, the studio was to become both an alternative sitting room for a larger group and a place of retreat for artistic inspiration and creativity.

“The fashion for white rooms was just about to spread like a plague of anaemia, throughout the drawing rooms of the world. My studio must be entirely white. “Nothing,” I explained, “can be so practical.” White walls, white furniture, white sofas... a large cutting garden entirely of white flowers must be cultivated.” In his memoir of Ashcombe, Cecil attributed the decoration of the studio to the influence of his friend Syrie Maugham, the pioneering interior decorator. Syrie, who had a penchant for self-promotion and an enviable client list, had successful interior decoration shops in Chicago and New York and had been in business since 1921. By 1930 the established Maugham style included bleached, antique furniture and a knack of adding these stripped or repainted classical pieces to ultra-contemporary art deco furnishings with a theatrical use of drapery. Cecil had introduced Syrie to Stephen Tennant in 1930 when he sought to refurbish Wilsford in a theatrical, but fashionably modern style, following his mother’s death in 1929. Though Cecil was inspired by Syrie he was still ahead of the fashion. Syrie’s ‘pickled’ panelling and white Drawing Room at 213 Kings Road in Chelsea had been unveiled in 1927 to great effect, but the large, mirrored, white ‘Party Room’ for which she became internationally renowned, was not completed until July 1932. The craze for all-white schemes was further enhanced by Oliver Messel who enjoyed great acclaim with his white scenery for the neoclassical ‘opéra bouffe’ Helen! which opened 30 January 1932. Syrie’s influence in the studio can be seen immediately in the large bolection moulded fireplace, centred on the back wall, similar to those at her Villa Eliza at Le Touquet. On the deadwhite walls hung a French carved oak decorative panel above the Italian cassone chest, on which stood a pair of ormolu Napoleon III lily candelabras, the gilding over-painted white. In the corners of the room a pair of tall, architectural strippedpine corner cupboards each supported an Italian carved angel. Woven rush mats were placed on the bare board floor and the two Deco square-armed sofas, slip-covered in off-white linen, were probably supplied by Syrie, being a model she was known for. The cushions on the sofas were made from “silver lamé covered with fringed dish-cloths.” Two white drums added a theatrical note at the end of each sofa. The pair of mirrored console tables on the back wall – another Maugham touch – held silvered glass vases and crystal candelabras. ABOVE: ‘Cecil Beaton at home’, 17 June 1934 OPPOSITE LEFT: Frank Owen Dobson, RA, CBE (1886-1963) at work in his studio on the bust of Cecil Beaton, 1931 OPPOSITE RIGHT: Bust of Cecil Beaton, 2014

“Meanwhile, unhampered by social conscience, we gave parties.”

“Perhaps Dorothy, the maid, now dressed in purple and looking like a character out of Dickens, would appear with a tray, but more probably the host, wearing a Tyrolean costume would dash out to give an exaggerated welcome.” In the long valley below the house, not far from the gamekeeper’s cottage, stood an Edwardian tram car, brought to Ashcombe by a previous owner and marooned, eccentrically, beside the path, apparently miles from any road. Still in its gaudy sea-side livery, the tram was complete with its upholstered seats, advertisements above the windows and diagrams listing the stops between Bournemouth and Poole. Used as a kind of surrealist summerhouse, Cecil would take a group there for afternoon tea. If a picnic tea was to be enjoyed in the valley, Dorothy, the maid, would be on hand to pour from the silver teapot.

ABOVE: The Bournemouth Corporation tram car, Ashcombe RIGHT: Article from The Bystander, 2 September 1936 OPPOSITE: ‘Picnicking in Cecil Beaton’s garden at Ashcombe...’ was published in US Vogue, 1 July 1935 and subsequently syndicated in UK Vogue.

ABOVE: The completed Circus Bed, Ashcombe, c1934 OPPOSITE: The Circus Room at Ashcombe, Sir Francis Rose, January 1939 This gouache, originally owned by Cecil Beaton, is the only known colour depiction of the room. END PAGE: Cecil holding death mask of Anna Pavlova, The Circus Bed, Ashcombe, circa 193X. The death mask was one of only 8 copies.

OVERLEAF: Recreation of the Circus Bedroom by Beaudesert Ltd, 2014. An exacting modern recreation of the Circus Bedroom, including the four poster bed and the known murals, reproduced from the extant photographs and the depiction by Sir Francis Rose. Created for the exhibition Cecil Beaton At Home: Ashcombe & Reddish, curated by Andrew Ginger for The Salisbury Museum, 23 May - 19 September 2014.

“The Sleeping Beauty’s precincts”

Later that afternoon they found the steep chalk track to the house from the ancient Ox Drove and, leaving their cars at the top, walked down to the back of the eighteenth century carriage arch. The party wandered around the courtyard and encountered Betteridge, the landlord’s gamekeeper, who was living with his family in the house. Unfazed by Edith’s bizarre attire, he explained the estate was owned by a Robert Borley of Shaftesbury but warned them off exploring further, for fear he might lose his job. Though it was just a glimpse, Cecil was entranced by the “strange, haunting and rather haunted atmosphere of the place,” and he remained lost in wonder as they retraced their steps up the hill to the cars.

Cecil returned from his second trip to America on 20 March 1930 feeling independent, confident and assured. He brought back a profit of £80, had agreed new rates for his now regular contributions to Vogue and his portraits of Hollywood stars were set to be published and syndicated through various magazines across the summer. He was keen to see his London friends and Edith Olivier, who had offered to help him edit and improve his Book of Beauty manuscript. Edith had endured a difficult winter at the Daye House. With mounting debts she had been obliged to let her cook, Mrs Lea, depart and was attempting to manage with Mrs Lea’s daughter, Violet, as the only servant on a budget of £66 a year. She had spent several weeks working intently on her new novel Dwarf’s Blood. Glad of a distraction she invited Cecil and Rex to stay for the weekend of 5 April.

“I was almost numbed by my first encounter with the house. It was as if I had been touched on the head by some magic wand. Some people may grow to love their homes: my reaction was instantaneous. It was love at first sight, and from the moment that I stood under the archway, I knew that this place was destined to be mine. No matter what the difficulties, I would overcome them all: considerations of money, suitability, or availability, were all superficial. This house must belong to me.”

They were joined at lunch on the Sunday by David Herbert and his cousins Caroline and Elizabeth Paget. Afterwards the party set about encouraging Edith’s theatrical nature and dressed her up “as a Matisse” in flowing gold and red tea gown, Cecil’s leopard skin dressing gown, a jet cape, a quantity of necklaces and a hat with three chiffon veils. Rex and Cecil worked on her makeup adding cerise lips and heavily blackened eyelashes. Enjoying her role, Edith began to expound like a mystic on the beauties and character of Wiltshire – its special, spiritual antiquity and “immense dynamic power.” Cecil wondered aloud if perhaps one day Edith could find him a little cottage for his weekends, “big enough to put a pot of honeysuckle on the windowsill,” he suggested modestly. Cottages were scarce but Edith recalled how her friend, the local sculptor Stephen Tomlin at Swallowcliffe, had described a remote ruined house he had recently discovered whilst walking on the downs; a Grand Meaulnes style fragment of a once impressive house, complete with grotto. With mounting excitement it was suggested they collect Stephen and his brother and see if this mysterious house could be found again.

ABOVE: Cecil and Edith Olivier visited Ashcombe... May 1930 ?? OPPOSITE: Cecil Beaton, Ashcombe, circa 1931