British Council Collection
MRS CHARLES SWEENEY (MARGARET, DUCHESS OF ARGYLL) AS HELEN OF TROY 1935
Madame Yevonde (1893 – 1975)
Details
- Dimension
- 50.7 X 40.6 CM
- Media
- ARCHIVAL PIGMENT TRANSFER PRINT
- Accession number
- P6976
Summary
Née Whigham. Divorced Charles Sweeney and went on to marry the 11th Duke of Argyll as his fourth wife in1951. She was purported to be the most photographed woman of her time.
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.
Madame Yevonde Be Original or Die, The British Council 1998
Glossary
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Contemporary
Existing or coming into being at the same period; of today or of the present. The term that designates art being made today.