Alex Michon spends an astrologically themed afternoon in London visiting ‘Yevonde: Life and Colour’ at the National Portrait Gallery and Wes Anderson’s ‘Asteroid City’ at the Garden Cinema.
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| Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, 2023); Yvonde, Lady Glendovan, 1936 |
When I saw Madame Yevonde’s photograph of Lady Glendevon at the National Portrait Gallery I literally gasped, bewitched by its breathtaking beauty. The exhibition: Yevonde: Life and Colour is the most comprehensive to date of the British photographer, Yevonde Middleton (1893-1975) who signed her work simply as Yevonde but was also known as ‘Madame Yevonde’. Having been an ardent suffragette, Yevonde was a pioneer, a celebrated portraitist, innovative colourist and advocate for women in the profession. She championed the use of colour photography and was the first person in Britain to exhibit colour photography.
In contrast to some of the more sumptuously coloured photographs in this exhibition, the Lady Glendevon photograph is relatively subtle. It was this understated quality that I found so appealing; the inky, lilac greyish fading sky with its am-dram stuck on stars backdrop, mirrored in the pinky white camellias on our Lady’s dress as she strikes her pose. Perfectly coiffured, be-pearled, exquisitely manicured, and sporting Hollywood glamour makeup, she stares thoughtfully at a half-glimpsed globe. Perhaps she is regretfully anticipating the inevitable decline of the British Empire?
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Yvonde, Lord and Lady Mountbatten, 1937 |
There is no escaping the fact that many of these photographs are portraits of white upper-class privileged aristocracy. Lord and Lady Mountbatten were considered to be the most beautiful couple in England when they married in 1922. In Yevonde’s portrait, Lord Mountbatten is shown gazing smugly at his beautiful wife as if she were just one more bauble on his overblown tasselled, silver-starred and robed regalia. But here too there are subtle small gold stars bedecking the theatrical curtains used as a backdrop which undermine the puffed-up finery on show.
However, there is so much more to Yevonde’s work than portraits of the posh. There are a stunning series of surrealist images from her 'Goddess' series which have a beguiling Jean Cocteauesque theatricality. This otherworldliness echos the words of the film director Wes Anderson who in describing his methodology said: ‘the kind of movie that I like to make is where there is an invented reality and the audience is going to go someplace where hopefully they've never been before. The details, that's what the world is made of.’
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| Yvonde: Lady Bridget Poulett as Arethusa; Eileen Hunter (Mrs Ward) as Dido; Baroness Gagern as Europa |
Anderson and Yevonde share this love of the creation of an otherworldly universe and this correlation is what struck me when I went on to watch Asteroid City. Coincidentally, Tilda Swinton who plays Dr Hinkerlooper, a scientist at a local observatory in Anderson’s film, is a collector of Yevonde’s work.
Set in the 1950s, Asteroid City features a series of behind-the scenes sequences in black and white, presenting a theatre troupe on the East Coast rehearsing a play called Asteroid City which tells the story of how people are intrigued by the fact that an asteroid has fallen to earth. As we go on to see the various acts of the play, the film bursts into colour.
The film is a loving, detailed homage to 50s Americana and is full of symmetrical close ups, saturated colour and impeccable costume and set design. Anderson’s films have been criticised as being style over substance. But if, like me you are partial to style, colour, inventive quirkiness and a singular vision, then Yvonde’s Life in Colour and Anderson’s Asteroid City are the places to head to.
Alex Michon
July 2023
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| Asteroid City (2023) |
Yevonde: Life and Colour
National Portrait Gallery, London
until 15 October 2023
Asteroid City is currently on general release
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