'He humanised the Royals and gave them relatability': Cecil Beaton photographs on display in Leeds include portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, Marilyn Monroe, Julie Andrews and Fred Astaire

Cecil Beaton: Staging Icons is a collaborative project between Harewood House Trust and the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), which holds the Beaton collection. The gallery presented the first major retrospective of Beaton’s portraits back in 1968; it was also the first time the NPG had exhibited photographic works. Through his eye-catching often elaborate theatrical staging, Beaton created a style that was uniquely his own and his lasting impact on visual culture and his influence on subsequent generations of photographers cannot be underestimated. The show at Harewood features 62 of his images, some of which have never been on public display before, taking visitors on a fascinating journey through Beaton’s extraordinary career, while also revealing Harewood’s connections to the photographer’s world.

“Between the two teams we realized quite quickly that there are some interesting connections between Beaton and Harewood and it allows us to tell a story that we haven’t looked at before,” says Rebecca Burton, Harewood House Trust’s curator and archivist who worked alongside NPG’s Bryony Smith. “It is great for the National Portrait Gallery to get their work seen around the country and for us to tell new stories for people to discover. We have tried to root the exhibition in Harewood’s history as much as possible.”

Beaton was a personal friend of the 7th Earl and Countess of Harewood – George and Patricia. They moved in many of the same social circles and their paths will also have crossed professionally. “George Harewood was a key figure in the British arts and cultural sector for many years,” says Burton. “His roles included being chair of the Royal Opera House and Governor of the BBC and he was quite deeply embedded in the stage and film world; he and Beaton would have worked with many of the same people at various points.”

A key inspiration for Beaton was the world of the stage.

“Not many people realize that his first love was actually theatre and we really wanted to highlight that in the exhibition,” says Burton. “He went on throughout his career to design costumes and sets for theatre and film.” As a child of the Edwardian era Beaton was fascinated by music hall stars and the postcards that his mother collected featuring some of the biggest names of the day. There is a small display of some of these in the exhibition and it is possible to see how the staging of the photographs is reflected in Beaton’s own work. The lighting, props, costume and dramatic composition of Beaton’s portraits gave them a performative feel which particularly suited the actors he frequently photographed. Among the most well-known images on display are the portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Julie Andrews, Fred Astaire, Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and Greta Garbo with whom Beaton had a complicated on-off relationship.

Also featured is the famous portrait of Audrey Hepburn in a striking dress she wore for the 1964 movie My Fair Lady, for which Beaton won Academy Awards for best art direction and costume design. Amongst other portraits on display are images of Maria Callas, Benjamin Britten, Alan Bennett and Harold Pinter. “One of my favourite images and one which really stood out for me is the Garbo portrait,” says Burton. “It is very old-style Hollywood – she is shown in profile – yet still quite natural. What we were fascinated to discover was the retouching on the image. If you look very closely you can see the really fine brush marks.”

The setting of the exhibition in an historic country house, with its lavish interiors, feels entirely appropriate. It adds an extra layer to, and provides an echo with, the meticulously constructed backdrops to Beaton’s photographic works. There is just one colour photograph on display in the exhibition – Beaton’s famous 1953 portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of her coronation, posing with orb and sceptre, seemingly at Westminster Abbey. In fact, the photograph was taken in the Green Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace with Beaton using a theatrical painted backdrop of the Abbey’s Henry VII Lady Chapel.

There is a group of photographs of the Royal Family – Beaton was appointed as royal photographer in 1939 – including a striking picture of Princess Margaret on her 19th birthday in a beautiful Norman Hartnell gown in front of an elaborate backdrop. “Beaton had a groundbreaking approach, particularly when you think of photographic portraiture prior to that – it often had a stiffness about it,” says Burton. “He introduced an element of theatre and drama which hadn’t been done before. And the best example of that, I think, is in his photographs of the Royal Family. He changed the way the Royals were perceived, he humanized them and gave them relatability.” Aside from the formal portraits there are some lovely informal shots including one of the then Princess Elizabeth sitting by a window with her toddler son Charles.

“We know that Beaton visited George and Patricia at their London home and also came to Harewood several times,” says Burton. “There was one particularly significant occasion when he stayed here at Harewood. It was when he was curating a fashion exhibition at the V&A and he was looking to feature one of Queen Mary’s hats. While he was here, he saw Princess Mary’s wedding dress.” As a teenager in 1922 Beaton had been in the crowd of Londoners on the day of the Royal Wedding of Princess Mary – George Harewood’s mother, the only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary – to Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood. “It was a bit of a full circle moment for Beaton, seeing the dress again here,” says Burton. “Quite a surreal encounter.”

The wedding dress is one of the items from the Harewood collection on display in the exhibition, alongside other pieces including George Harewood’s gramophone – which features in one of Beaton’s portraits of Harewood taken in his study – the visitors’ book with Beaton’s signature and a Christmas card from Beaton to the Harewoods with a hand-drawn design of one of the costumes for My Fair Lady on the front. Several of the portraits on display also feature the Harewoods.

“Throughout the exhibition there is a mixture of very staged studio portraits carefully constructed by Beaton and also more spontaneous shots, although they still have an element of theatricality to them, that he made with a portable camera he always had with him,” says Burton. “There is one of George and Patricia on the main staircase at Harewood, taken during Beaton’s 1971 visit. It is almost as though they are greeting him on the stairs and the two dogs in the shot add an extra liveliness and energy to the shot on this incredibly dramatic staircase.”

Burton hopes that visitors will enjoy the exhibition and the lens through which Beaton’s work is being presented. “Looking at how his love of theatre influenced the way he portrayed his sitters is a new angle that, as far as we know, has not been explored in an exhibition of his work before,” she says. “I hope we have produced a unique experience that also really connects to the place in which it is staged.”

Cecil Beaton: Staging Icons is at Harewood House until October 4. harewood.org