Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World
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Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World

Date
FEB 5 – MAY 30, 2027
Gallery
Harriet and Warren Stephens Family Gallery
Price
Free

The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts is proud to present Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World, on view February 5 through May 30, 2027. Organized by the National Portrait Gallery in London and curated by photography historian and contributing editor to Vogue, Robin Muir, this is the first exhibition dedicated solely to Beaton’s groundbreaking contributions to fashion and portrait photography.

Known as “The King of Vogue,” Cecil Beaton (1904 – 1980) was an extraordinary force in 20th-century England and America. Renowned as a fashion illustrator, Oscar-winning costume designer, social caricaturist, and writer, Beaton imaginatively elevated fashion and portrait photography into an exuberant art form.

The exhibition showcases Beaton’s images of Jazz Age New York and England’s “Bright Young Things,” a group of eccentric socialites from the 1920s and 30s, his wartime photography, and the high fashion brilliance of the 50s and the glittering, Oscar-winning success of My Fair Lady. Via London, Paris, New York, and Hollywood, his era-defining photographs captured beauty, glamour, and star power in the interwar and early postwar eras.

  • Cecil Beaton (1904 – 1980), The Wonder of the Age (Marilyn Monroe), 1956, gelatin silver print, 7 1/2 x 7 /12 in., Accepted in Lieu of Inheritance Tax by HM Government and allocated to the National Portrait Gallery, 1991 © Cecil Beaton Archive / Condé Nast. Photo: National Portrait Gallery, London.

  • Cecil Beaton (1904 – 1980), Elizabeth Taylor, 1955, gelatin silver print. On loan from the Cecil Beaton Studio Archive, London @ Condé Nast.

  • Cecil Beaton (1904 – 1980), Princess Margaret in Dior ballgown for her 21st birthday, 1951, modern print from original color transparency. Courtesy of The Cecil Beaton Studio Archive, London © Condé Nast/ Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

  • Cecil Beaton (1904 – 1980), Buster Keaton, 1930, gelatin silver print. On loan from the Cecil Beaton Studio Archive, London @ Condé Nast.

  • Cecil Beaton (1904 – 1980), Mrs. Harrison Williams, 1936, gelatin silver print. On loan from the Cecil Beaton Studio Archive, London @ Condé Nast.

  • Cecil Beaton (1904 – 1980), Spring (ball gown by Irene against painting by Jackson Pollock, the Betty Parsons Gallery, New York) Background image: Lavender Mist: Number 1, 1950, 1951, modern print from original color transparency, Courtesy of The Condé Nast Archive, New York. © Condé Nast.

  • Cecil Beaton (1904 – 1980), Cecil Beaton, 1935, gelatin silver print. On loan from the Cecil Beaton Studio Archive, London @ Condé Nast.

The exhibition features photographs, magazine covers, and fashion illustration. Beaton captured portraits of some of the 20th century’s most iconic figures, including film stars Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marlon Brando; members of the British royal family, like Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret; and writers and artists, such as Truman Capote, Jean Cocteau, and Salvador Dalí.

The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts is one of only two U.S. venues for the exhibition, and its presentation will exclusively feature period fashions by the designers and department stores featured in Beaton’s photographs, including Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, Irene, Christian Dior, Hattie Carnegie, and Bonwit Teller.

Sponsors

Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World is organized by the National Portrait Gallery, London, and presented by the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts. 

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