Original Portrait Photograph of Sarah Churchill. [Signed by Beaton]

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Silver gelatine studio print, mounted. 30cm x 24cm. A striking portrait photograph of Sarah Churchill, second daughter of British politician and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Signed by the photographer in red to the lower right margin of the mount, the image is recorded by the Beaton Studio Archive as first published in the London edition of Vogue magazine in 1941. Sarah Millicent Hermione Churchill (1914-1982) was her father's favourite child; beautiful, talented, witty and impulsive; determined to have a stage career she studied dance and ballet and at the age of 21 made her first stage appearance at London's Adelphi Theatre in the chorus line of "Follow the Sun". After the round of provincial theatres she moved to the United States. Her acting career ranged from the West End and Broadway to Hollywood; later in life she was to dance with with Fred Astaire. However, at the outset of war she returned to England and enlisted as an intelligence officer in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, working at RAF Medmenham with Constance Babington Smith on the interpretation of aerial photographs. Babington Smith thought her a 'quick and versatile interpreter'. Winston Churchill valued her judgement to the extent that he appointed her as a personal aide, in which capacity she accompanied him to the Marrakesh and Yalta conferences. Provenance: from the estate of the artist and archaeologist Brian Hope-Taylor; the two had worked together at Medmenham. A very rare print. Some offsetting to portions of the emulsion, damage to the upper left of the mount with tape residue to the upper and lower edges, otherwise no faults. Seller Inventory # 3135

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