{"id":1584,"date":"2010-01-16T17:49:24","date_gmt":"2010-01-16T16:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dickonedwards.co.uk\/diary\/?p=1584"},"modified":"2010-01-16T18:09:42","modified_gmt":"2010-01-16T17:09:42","slug":"the-back-seat-exhibition-captioner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/archive\/the-back-seat-exhibition-captioner\/","title":{"rendered":"The Back Seat Exhibition Captioner"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few days into the New Year: with Dad to Somerset House Ice Rink. A favourite spot at this time of year, though we always go as spectators in the cafe, never as skaters.<\/p>\n

We also drop into the Norman Parkinson exhibition, A Very British Glamour<\/em><\/a>. Stunning photos of ladies from vintage fashion mags. But Parkinson also had a thing for combining beauty with humour, often putting his models in unexpected poses and locations.<\/p>\n

In one early 50s shot, his wife and muse Wanda, looking immaculate in a cashmere twin-set, sits in a rural working man’s pub, seemingly playing shove ha’penny with a flat-capped old regular. An unlikely story.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Another, The Young Look In The Theatre (1953),<\/em> depicts a gaggle of up and coming stage actresses of the day. I love all the different types of outfits, hinting at what the actresses think of their own real life personae. Some casual, some up-to-the-minute fashionable, some timeless and classic, some girlish, some noble, some vampish, some womanly, some motherly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(<\/em>Clicking on the photo takes you to a much larger version on the Christie’s website, with a click-and-zoom facility)<\/p>\n

The exhibition doesn’t list who’s who, frustratingly. So I get on the Net and find out for myself.<\/p>\n

Top row (upside down, the old wag): Norman Parkinson himself.<\/p>\n

Middle row (on the bars, left to right): Virginia McKenna, Elizabeth Henson, Patricia McCarron, Josephine Griffin.<\/p>\n

Bottom row (standing, left to right): Hazel Penwarden, Zena Walker, Yvonne Furneaux, Jill Bennett, Patricia Owens, Ruth Trouncer.<\/p>\n

I also love one Vogue <\/em>portrait of Enid Boutling, model and wife of the film director Roy. Captioned ‘Impertinence (1950)<\/em>‘, she’s wearing a dandyish suit with a cropped hair, a stand-offish glare, and – shock horror – is smoking a cigarette without a holder. Regarded as very daring at the time, at least for Vogue<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Enid<\/p>\n

Another favourite is of Audrey Hepburn with a baby donkey. Parkinson clearly punning on the ‘what an adorable creature’ response.<\/p>\n

\"audrey-hepburn-donkey\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days into the New Year: with Dad to Somerset House Ice Rink. A favourite spot at this time of year, though we always go as spectators in the cafe, never as skaters. We also drop into the Norman Parkinson exhibition, A Very British Glamour. Stunning photos of ladies from vintage fashion mags. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[157,256,257],"class_list":["post-1584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dad","tag-normal-parkinson","tag-somerset-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1584"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1957,"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584\/revisions\/1957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dickonedwards.com\/diary\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}