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GERTRUDE LAWRENCE AS THE MUSE OF COMEDY 1935

Madame Yevonde (1893 – 1975)

Details

Dimension
50.7 X 40.6 CM
Media
ARCHIVAL PIGMENT TRANSFER PRINT
Accession number
P6983

Summary

Celebrated actress and close friend of Noel Coward, British dramatist most noted as a master of sophisticated and risqué comedies and musicals.

References to classical and contemporary Surrealism pervade The Goddesses series of society beauties transformed into Green and Roman Goddesses, which Yevonde began in 1935. Whilst claiming in her autobiography, In Camera</>, that her inspiration for the series derived solely from the 18th century painters’ idea of depicting beauties as Greek Goddess, it would appear that the its immediate impetus came from the ‘Olympian Ball’ held at Claridges hotel in London in March 1935.