Sir Cecil Beaton photography goes to auction from vaults of Sitwell family

The images are going on sale for the first time direct from the Sitwell family’s private collection.

Photographs by Sir Cecil Beaton, CBE, the revered British portrait, fashion and war photographer, are among a selection of photographs being offered at auction by one of the most famous literary families in England, the Sitwells. One is a photograph of the artist Pavel Tchelitchew (1898-1957), who was a great friend of the family (and a selection of whose works are offered in the sale, including a Pen, brush and ink portrait of Dame Edith Sitwell (Lot 359).

The photograph by the renowned Cecil Beaton (1904-1980), a great friend and frequent visitor to the Sitwell family seat, Weston Hall at the height of the Bright Young Things movement. The photograph (illustrated below) depicts the artist at work and bears a stamp on its’ reverse of the Beaton studio. It is estimated to fetch £1,000-£1,500 at auction.

Beaton took many photographs of the Sitwell family, including the famous portrait of Dame Edith Sitwell in an ostrich feather hat, which resides in the V&A’s permanent collection and of which there is a print in the sale, as well as the original hat featured in the photograph (lot 324) illustrated at the top of the release. Others by Beaton in the sale are lots 268 and 269, which are portraits of Georgia Sitwell (1905-1980), wife of the writer Sacheverell Sitwell (1897-1988), taken in circa 1927, one of which is cut into an art-deco design. Each lot is estimated to fetch £700-£900.

The photographs are part of the sale of the contents of Weston Hall in Northamptonshire, a seat of the illustrious Sitwell family since the early 20th century and their ancestors since the 18th century. The spectacular sale charts the history of an eminent family of esteemed writers, eccentrics, pioneers and creatives through the centuries. The sale, titled Weston Hall and the Sitwells: A Family Legacy, offers a once in a lifetime’s chance to obtain a piece of literary history, the like of which has not been seen on the market for some time. It will take place at Dreweatts on Tuesday, November 16 & 17, 2021.

Three framed photographs of Georgia Sitwell by photographers Hay Wrightson (1874-1949), Maurice Beck and Helen Macgregor (1886-1960) who worked together in a studio in Marylebone where they were the chief photographers for British Vogue magazine. The photographs show Georgia Sitwell in various poses and are estimated to fetch £1,500-£2,000). Others in the sale include a folio of seven portrait photographs from the 1920s and 30s of key members of the Bright Young Things of which the Sitwells were at the centre, with many parties and gatherings taking place at Weston Hall.

Among them is a photo of Violet Gordon-Woodhouse (1872-1948), the first musician to record the harpsichord. She was photographed by the British portrait photographer known for his portrayals of professional musicians and composers, such as Gustav Holst, Herbert Lambert (1882-1936).

Violet first met Osbert Sitwell at one of the Sunday afternoon recitals she gave at her home in Ovingdon Square, London, during the First World War. She became a close family friend, and all three Sitwells stayed with her at Nether Lypiatt, her home in Gloucestershire and visited her in Mount Street, Mayfair, London. Throughout her life Violet kept to a rigorous practice schedule and Sacheverell and Osbert Sitwell both wrote that they had only known two women of genius, one was their sister Edith, the other was Violet Gordon-Woodhouse.

The second photograph in the set is by Paul Laib (1869 – 1958) a naturalised British subject, of German descent, who worked as a fine art photographer, producing photographic records of paintings, drawings and sculpture, as well as capturing all the major artists in Britain on camera between 1898 and 1950s, including the English painter John Piper (1903-992), whose oil work Two Scenes of The Tower of London is being offered in the sale (Lot 313). His subject in this case is Mrs. Viva King (1893-1978), who was referred to by Osbert Sitwell as both ‘the Queen of Bohemia’ and ‘the Scarlet Woman’, for her unconventional marriage to Willie King (British Museum curator who died in 1958).

Others in the set include a bromide print on card of the Hon Desmond Parsons (1910-1937), an aristocratic aesthete, regarded as “one of the most magnetic men of his generation”, a bromide print on card of Elizabeth le Mesurier in the 1920s, a great friend of ‘Mrs S. Sitwell’ believed to be by the photographer Macadams, a photograph of Frances (Mufi) Engleman, a cousin of Mrs. S. Sitwell by Greens Studio, Flemington in the 1920s. Last is a photograph of Georgia Sitwell dating from circa 1928 by English photographer Paul Tanqueray (1905-1991). Tanqueray, a celebrated photographer in his won right took on an assistant ex-Cambridge graduate Cecil Beaton, who worked for him until Beaton was employed by Vogue. The complete set carries an estimate of £300-£500.

Amongst another group of fifteen photographic items is Sacheverell Sitwell and Georgia Doble’s wedding photograph album, dated October 25, 1925 (produced by Alton in Paris). It is accompanied by a black and white print of Sacheverell Sitwell and his new bride, Georgia Sitwell in the doorway of St. George’s Anglican Church, Paris and two small photographs of their sons, Reresby and Francis Sitwell.

In the same lot is a photograph of Frederick Dawson, the Pianist, dating from the 1930’s.  A bromide print on photographer’s grey card mount and its’ title in pencil beneath; ‘Frederick Dawson Esquire / the Pianist / (1868-1940)’. Frederick Dawson the British pianist was a child prodigy who by the age of ten could play the complete Bach 48 preludes and fugues. He studied with Anton Rubinstein, Halle and Dannreuther. He pursued a successful career in his homeland and Europe, also touring with soprano Adelina Patti and taught at the Royal Manchester College of Music and The Royal College of Music in London. The photograph of him was produced by Frederick. W. Schmidt, a German photographer active in the 1900s. Another German photographer, Emil otto Hoppe (1878-1972) captured Osbert Sitwell on camera in 1918. Emil Hoppé was acknowledged as the frontrunner of pictorial portraiture in Europe, photographing many leading literary subjects and figures in the art world. In the early 1920s he was invited to photograph Queen Mary, King George and members of the Royal family.

A photograph of Sir Gerald Tyrwhitt Wilson, 14th Baron, (1883-1950), from circa 1940s is also included in this lot. Berners was a British composer, novelist, painter and aesthete. He established a close friendship with all three Sitwells, entertaining them often at his home, also in Halkin Street. It was Sacheverell Sitwell, with his passion for music who formed the closest ties with Berners, and collaborated with him on the Diaghilev ballet, ‘The Triumph of Neptune’, in 1926. In 1931, Sacheverell dedicated his book ‘Spanish Baroque Art’ to Lord Berners. The photographer was Dr. Gregory Harlip (Eastern European, active 1930s-1950s) who ran a photographic studio specialising in celebrity portraits, based at 161 New Bond Street, Mayfair, London.

Other works in the same lot comprise a black and white photograph, depicting the young South African dancer and actress Pearl Argyle (1910-1947) by an anonymous photographer in circa 1935. Her career included leading roles in productions for the Ballet Rambert and Vic-Wells Ballet (now the Royal Ballet). Sacheverell Sitwell first met Pearl Argyle in 1933, and became infatuated by her beauty, and whilst aware he did not love her, Pearl relished in Sacheverell’s sophistication and the influence he was able to wield in the world of ballet on her behalf. Other photographs include those of Colonel Hely Hutchinson and Georgia Doble of the Sitwell family, amongst others.  This entire group lot carries an estimate of £300-£500 (Lot 286).

The sale also features a photograph of the Sitwell brothers Osbert and Sacheverell side by side, by an anonymous photographer, alongside a photograph of Sacheverell on his own by the German-born photographer Bill Brandt (1904-1983), famed for his pictures of British society and magazines Lilliput and Picture Post. They are both estimated to fetch £500-£600 (Lot 406).

To see other photographic works coming up in this auction, or to view the full sale of the contents of Weston Hall visit the auction site here.