Circle of Friends:The World of Rex Whistler, Stephen Tennant & Cecil Beaton

From very different backgrounds Rex Whistler and Stephen Tennant met as students at the Slade and having found common ground in whimsical drawings, as well as sharing a similar sense of humour, they became friends and collaborators. A young if luckless photographer, Cecil Beaton first met Stephen at a party in 1926, on the coldest day of the year. He had admired him at a distance for so long and, as if a light clicked on, suddenly everything Cecil ever wanted — chiefly fame and glamour — was now within his grasp. And it was through Stephen that Rex and Cecil met, both his guests in the South of France. The three formed a close friendship which ended only with Rex’s death. Rather despite himself Rex became something of a ‘Bright Young Thing’; rather despite himself Stephen a writer manqué, and entirely to plan, Cecil became the most celebrated photographer of his age.

Host or Publisher The Salisbury Museum