| Commemorating the centenary of his birth, Australia’s National Portrait Gallery showed a exhibition of portraits by Sir Cecil Beaton that had previously been staged at the National Portrait Galley in London. There are reviews here and here. Beaton was the subject of the (London) National Portrait Gallery’s first photographic exhibition in 1968, curated by Sir Roy Strong.
Among the many intriguing portraits of society beauties and the good and the great, one of the most poignant was this picture of King Faisal II of Iraq, who was born in 1935 and became King at the age of four on the death of his father, King Ghazi. After a long regency, he took office in his own right in 1953, but was assassinated in a military coup on 14 July 1958, while working for federation with Jordan, ruled by his friend and relative King Hussein. |
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