December 17, 2014 /

Angus McBean: Facemaker by Adrian Woodhouse – Reviews – Books – The Independent

Dame Edith Evans, by Angus McBean, bromide print, 1959
Dame Edith Evans by Angus McBean, bromide print, 1959 © estate of Angus McBean / National Portrait Gallery, London

Was he a good portraitist? By the naturalistic lights of our day, no. Edith Evans, appalled that a photographer had turned up unannounced at her dressing room door, calmed down when she heard it was McBean. “He will retouch me out of all recognition,” trilled the relieved actress. “It’s simple,” remarked McBean, when asked the secret of his success. “They want to be beautiful.” It was his friend and sometime lover, Quentin Crisp, who summed up Angus’s way with his subjects. “Everything,” said Crisp, crisply, “was retouched but their titles.”

via Angus McBean: Facemaker by Adrian Woodhouse – Reviews – Books – The Independent.

Marlene Dietrich by Angus McBean, 1951
Marlene Dietrich by Angus McBean, 1951

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CategoriesArt Culture Design Entertainment fashion Film History Hollywood Life London Movies Photography Theater Truth & Rumors Uncategorized

TagsAndrew McBean photographed the world of the theater Angus McBean was a surrealist photographer Dame Edith Evans Ivor Novello Margot Fonteyn Marlene Dietrich The Beatles

4 Comments

  1. Audleigh
    December 17, 2014

    Reblogged this on Carleigh-Hepburn and commented:
    Lena is awfully ravishing in that photo.

  2. Marcheline
    December 20, 2014

    Ah, Ms. Dietrich at her best! Still, and silent.

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