In 1937, society photographer Cecil Beaton (1904–1980) threw the party of his life. Three hundred guests arrived in masks and costumes for his fête champêtre garden party at his country pile in Cranborne Chase, Wiltshire. Birdcages hung in the topiary, swags of roses filled his studio and garlands of paper flowers festooned the house and garden. Beaton greeted guests wearing a pink corduroy frock coat he had designed himself, decorated with chiffon roses, tufted leaves and broken eggshells. It was a year after London’s International Surrealist Exhibition — and Beaton was in thrall to the Surrealists. Salvador Dalí even sourced him a rabbit mask to complete his outfit.
A self portrait, taken in the 1960s.
People in costume at Cecil Beaton’s Ashcombe House for the Fête Champêtre — photographed by Beaton.
Beaton studied at Cambridge in the 1920s; he left without a degree, but with an address book bursting with Bright Young Things. By the time of his party his photographs were appearing in Vogue on both sides of the Atlantic and he was soon to be appointed official court photographer to the Royal Family. But, as this small yet illuminating exhibition reveals, there was far more to Beaton than his photographic eye.
A royal Portrait of Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) taken at Buckingham Palace in 1945.
The space given over to Cecil Beaton’s Garden Party at the Garden Museum is smaller than Beaton’s own drawing room, but its intimacy is its trump card. For it is as if we have stepped inside one of his photographs and entered his personal world. The interior is germolene pink, every display case is skirted in floral fabric and painted roses climb the walls. There’s tinfoil behind photographic displays and fake flowers everywhere. The result is over-the-top and theatrical, a chintzy camp spectacle, which makes it a fitting tribute to the waspish Beaton and his enduring love of all things floral.
If the exhibition occasionally takes a wrong turn — presenting his official war photographs in evacuees’ suitcases complete with shiny cellophane and everlasting lilies — then so too did Beaton. He was sacked from American Vogue for antisemitism as the Second World War loomed. His career threatened to sink without trace before a royal life ring was thrown in the shape of a floral photo shoot with Queen Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother).
Beaton photographed Bianca Jagger in 1978 — the same year she separated from Mick.
For a retrospective of Beaton’s photographs you will have to wait for the National Portrait Gallery’s Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World this autumn. Instead the Garden Museum’s exhibition offers an intimate portrait of Beaton for whom flowers were an enduring creative inspiration. Loosely chronological, it maps his life at his two country homes, Ashcombe House and later Reddish House in Broad Chalke, where he moved after the war (Country Life photographed the interior for the March 28, 1957 issue).
''Suggestions for Fancy Dress' by Cecil Beaton appeared inside a 1937 edition of British Vogue.
We can peek in his diaries, read letters to and from friends about his garden plans and contemplate his still-life paintings of nasturtiums and roses. It also brings to the fore sketches of floral costumes for the ballets and musicals he designed, including his work on My Fair Lady (both stage and screen). He won an Academy Award for best costume design and his Oscar is included next to Audrey Hepburn’s congratulatory letter: ‘Just to say how happy happy happy happy happy I am that you received your Oscar. I wish you could have heard the applause.’
‘Cecil Beaton’s Garden Party’ is open now until September 21; admission from £15
-
It's a perfect storm for the revival of eclecticism, and we're in the middle of itIn design, periods of purism are often followed by a dramatic new mood. Now, the scene is set for an exciting revival of eclecticism.
-
How good is your Claudia Winkleman trivia? Find out in The Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 13, 2025What secrets lurk beneath that fringe?
-
Nine of Britain's most beautiful and awe-inspiring painted ceilings from the Country Life archiveOur round-up of some of the Britain's prettiest painted ceilings is a good reminder to always look up.
-
The Glovebox: The fastest coffee shop on four wheelsBentley joins forces with Joe & The Juice, Rolls-Royce makes a Spectre for a dog, an Austin Mini with royal connections comes up for auctions, and Norman Foster clambers into a Bulldog.
-
‘One remembers not to give the Queen a thump of joyful friendliness’: Remembering Norman Parkinson — revolutionary fashion photographer and Cecil Beaton’s only homegrown rivalCecil Beaton might be the toast of London right now, with a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, but contemporary Norman Parkinson was always hot on his heels.
-
Tim Knox, director of the Royal Collection, charts a century of regal tasteEdward VII swept away the cobwebs of mid-Victorian style, Queen Mary had passion for all things small and the Queen Mother bought rather avant-garde art.
-
‘She was a sort of fairy godmother to Country Life’: Mark Hedges, Tom Parker Bowles, Sophia Money-Coutts and more on the genius of Jilly CooperJilly Cooper appeared in the pages of Country Life multiple times. Here, friends of the magazine reflect on time spent with her and what she meant to them.
-
‘One of the most amazing spaces in London’: Two Hogarth murals, inside an 18th century London hospital, are to go on public display for the first timeSt Bartholomew's Hospital’s north wing is to open as a visitor attraction and events space — while the rest of the hospital will continue to operate as normal.
-
Sophia Money-Coutts: A snob's guide to welliesWellington boots are a signifier, says Sophia Money-Coutts, of whether you are 'proper country' or not.
-
Fall the right way: Country Life's shopping guide to the very best this autumnFrom tweed to tartan, scented candles to sandwiches, here's how to spend your money this autumn.
