Natural Fashion

Showing posts with label Fleur Cowles. Show all posts

when straw calls VIII

FLeur Straw

le brun

fleur cowles

...down the Beaton path - Beverley Nichols & Cecil Beaton

photograph of Cecil Beaton's great friend and artist Rex Whistler

by Cecil Beaton

(read more about Rex Whistler here)

BEATON v. NICHOLS

...continuing FLEUR COWLES FLOWER GAME with detours along the way

Robert Mapplethorpe (here)

Gwili Andre by Cecil Beaton
from Chris Beetles (here)

I can not imagine the sparks that flew when the young aesthete Cecil Beaton met the older aesthete Beverley Nichols. It seems Nichols was trying to coax the 24 year old innocent into an affair. Nichols boasted of bedding a number of famous fellows, dropping Names in hopes of impressing Beaton. In the biography- Beverley Nichols A Life by Bryan Connon, Nichols recalls Beaton as being "startled".
( I bet.)

Artists Gilbert and George
by Cecil Beaton

Cecil Beaton photographs from CHRIS BEETLES (here)

By 1928, Nichols was a best selling author and had audaciously written an autobiography Twenty-Five, he boasted one should have accomplished enough to write such a book at the age of 25. Cecil Beaton was well on his way to his own fame- and ultimately one could say-'outfamed' Nichols.

Nichols by Beaton

In 1929, Nichols wrote Beaton that he must go to New York to be a big success and promised him a commission of 10 photographs for the American Sketch- a new publication where Nichols was to be editor. Nichols had been set up in New York with the job and brought "little pieces of England" to the city- ultimately selling his French furniture in exchange for sturdy "English" Victorian mahogany. Nichols' sophisticated manservant Gaskin was imported as well to oversee it all.

photograph courtesy of Timber Press

by CB

from Chris Beetles (here)

Beaton did take on the city, but the commission BN promised never came through. I can't help but wonder- was it the Sketch publishers who vetoed the Beaton commission or was it Beverley's own snub? Perhaps- a would be lover scorned- at what might have been Beaton's demure to Nichols overtures. I'll never know- neither to my knowledge recorded the reasons. Beaton was in New York and of course angry about the whole thing.

A Happy Ending though: It turns out Beaton didn't need Beverley's help and ultimately landed in what was to be- his own- always -sweet pot of jam.

I can't leave these two erudite aesthetes without knowing they patched things up and fortunately the truth of the tale is that they did. They exchanged genuinely affectionate letters as they got older, admiring each others work and lamenting the onset of old age.

Beverley

The photograph of Beverley done much in the style of Beaton and likely is one of his portraits- no doubt there was a bit of provocative chatter at the sitting.

Beaton, Gladys Cooper, Nichols

Excerpts from the FLOWER GAME

Beaton's Japanese Paper Blossoms

Nichols- not known for brevity exclaimed:

"What a lovely idea!... With the exception of the bougainvillaea, it is firmly British. The only thing that may make it unusual is that I do NOT put roses first. I think that the average garden is greatly 'over rosed'. The whole Idea, of course, is only a dream because one couldn't grow snowdrops and bougainvillaea together. Or Perhaps YOU could!

Nichols with his garden Lilies

... In order of priority is as follows:

Lilium regale, bougainvillea (common magenta variety); Double purple Lilac (Souvenir de Louis Spaeth); Camellia (Donation); Rose (Fragrant Cloud); Snowdrops in clumps (Galanthus ebrosessii); Agapanthus; English Primroses in clumps; and English Blue Bells, philadelphus ( Belle Etoile).

Beaton's scattered Roses fabric creation

Beaton- in less flowery language said:

" Any large white Orchid of any variety, so long as it is white. (I have grown some and they are a great delight!) ; white Paeony, dark red Roses, white Rose, Pink Rose, lily- of- the Valley; auratum Lily; white Marguerites, white Geraniums, Clematis.

Mapplethorpe's Orchid

Rose by Robert Mapplethorpe

Sir Cecil Beaton died in 1980.
Beverley Nichols outlived him by three years.

Grace

Along with the Blushing Hostess (here) and in celebration of our most elegant and gracious First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy- Little Augury celebrates GRACE.

American born Grace Kelly:

Hollywood movie star extraordinaire,
Absolute Beauty,
Princess Grace of Monaco.

The Blushing Hostess has invited us to visit her site and see all the postings about gracious people.

Grace Kelly lit up the tiny Principality of Monaco with Her magic, Her stardom, Her elegance, Her style,

Her Grace.

Her Serene Highness, Princess Grace, played the Fleur Cowles Flower Game-selecting Ten Flowers she would take to fill her own island. Of the two hundred that answered to Cowles , the Princess' answers reveal much.

After reflecting, she put together a perfect world, providing everything she might need with her choices; beauty, sustenance, shelter and a fairy tale ending. She was an intellectual, an artist, a pragmatist and a dreamer.

The Princess Plays the Flower Game

in Grace's own words

I chose ZUCCHINI so that I could eat the flower...

(the Zucchini Blossom)

let the leaves grow over a trellis made from BAMBOO*
where I would sit quietly in the shade and contemplate

my beautiful ROSES

and pure white IRIS.

Bees would make a hive in the fragrance of my APPLE tree

(the apple blossom)

and enjoy the LAVENDER

and ROSEMARY to make their honey.

after running through my field of DAISIES,

I would stretch out...sip a little rosemary tea and nibble on GLADIOLUS bulb (very rich in Vitamin C). I would be very kind to this much maligned flower whose sisters are bobbing up and down, precariously perched on the back decks of yachts in Monte Carlo Harbour, looking quite forlorn.

I would try to find a fresh water pond on the island for my WATER LILIES
with the hope that their large leaves will attract frogs.

Who knows?

One might turn into a handsome prince who would be decent enough to whisk me off this lonely island
and take me back to civilization...

After all, I am really a city girl at heart!

Princess Grace had a full staff in the Palace awaiting her pleasure, all in attendance to assure the success of entertaining in her name-Yet one can not imagine her hand not being in it all. The same thoughtfulness and care she must have taken in each and every detail-Much like her flower list.

* her note-" I hope you will accept it although I have never seen it flower."

Cary Grant plays the Flower Game

"he loves me"
"he loves me not"

the Daisy
one of Grant's picks

Cary Grant as Fleur's Leading Man

Grant was best man at the last of Fleur's fourth marriage and Grant was married five times. So these two would have had a lot more than flowers to talk about.

Grant as leading man with Grace Kelly in Hitchcock's
"To Catch A Thief"

Who wouldn't let Grant lead them around? He is for me Hollywood's one and only best Leading Man.

Grant's enthusiasm for his pick of flowers is adorable. He still has that effect.

As Grant told it to Fleur:

"My selections, probably listed in the favour with which I regard them
since they popped to mind in the following order:

PANSIES- all types, all colours; LILACS- lavender and/or white; BLUEBELLS;

LILY-OF-THE-VALLEY;

DAISIES-not the small field daisy but the larger, single petalled variety:

SWEET PEAS Lathyrus odoratus;

ROSES; VIOLETS; CORNFLOWERS-Blue; JASMINE."

& Grant added:

" Though how could you limit me, or anyone, to a list of only ten?
I long to add primroses, mimosa, frangipani, carnations, fuchsias...

Oh, I could go on for hours."

Cary Grant's Palm Springs Home for over 20 years
Las Palomas (The Doves)
see more of it here