{"id":514788,"date":"2026-04-05T20:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T20:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/514788\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T20:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T20:33:15","slug":"amazing-unseen-photos-by-cecil-beaton-and-lee-miller-unearthed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/514788\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Amazing\u2019 unseen photos by Cecil Beaton and Lee Miller unearthed"},"content":{"rendered":"

A darkroom technician\u2019s scrapbook has been hailed as one of the greatest photographic records of the 20th century after its pages revealed previously unknown prints from two of history\u2019s most celebrated photographers.<\/p>\n

The book contains scores of images created by Lee Miller and Cecil Beaton during the Second World War and its aftermath, processed and printed in London by their trusted assistant Roland Haupt.<\/p>\n

\"AThe scrapbook includes photos of Cecil Beaton<\/p>\n

After Haupt\u2019s death in the early Sixties, the scrapbook was passed to his descendants, who did not display it. It has now been bought by the University of Oxford\u2019s Bodleian Libraries, which hailed it as a unique record of the era.<\/p>\n

The book contains many unseen prints including a second shot of one of the century\u2019s most iconic images: Miller pictured in the bathtub of Hitler\u2019s Munich apartment shortly after she had been to Dachau concentration camp.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

According to Antony Penrose, Miller\u2019s son, the picture, taken by her friend David E Scherman, had been his mother \u201csticking two fingers up at Hitler\u201d having trodden all over the F\u00fchrer\u2019s\u00a0bathroom floor with her boots \u201ccovered with the filth of Dachau\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"LeeLee Miller in the more famous version of the bathroom photograph David E Scherman\/Lee Miller Archives<\/p>\n

Miller, the recent subject of a Tate Britain exhibition<\/a> and a film starring Kate Winslet<\/a>, is recognised as one of the 20th century\u2019s most remarkable individuals, with a trailblazing record in surrealism, fashion photography and war reportage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BlackMiller in 1943 and, below, played by Kate Winslet in the film LeeAlamy<\/p>\n

\"KateSky UK<\/p>\n

The former Vogue model was one of the few accredited female war correspondents, and her images and reporting from across Europe were published in British and American Vogue.<\/p>\n

Beaton was an equally monumental figure having been an official British government war photographer, the creator of some of the most memorable images of the royal family, and an Oscar winner for best costume design for two films, including My Fair Lady.<\/p>\n

\"QueenQueen Elizabeth on her coronation day in 1953 by Cecil BeatonRoyal Collection Trust\/His Majesty King Charles III 2023\/PA<\/p>\n

\"CollageShe features in the scrapbook as Princess Elizabeth, with her sister Princess Margaret<\/p>\n

It is only now known that Miller and Beaton were sending their films back to London from Europe and Africa for Haupt to process and print before he forwarded their images to Vogue and others. <\/p>\n

Haupt, who had been personally trained by Miller, was keeping his own scrapbook of the prints he developed between 1943 and 1949. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The photography dealer Michael Hoppen who brokered the deal with the Bodleian after being contacted by Haupt\u2019s descendants, said the book was an \u201cempirical time capsule\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hoppen said it had been a \u201cbig surprise\u201d to discover that Miller, \u201cknowing what she had in the can, was entrusting her film to this man\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat relationship was clearly very important,\u201d Hoppen said this month. \u201cAnd he has clearly been instrumental in showing us how extraordinarily brave this woman was.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are lots of pictures I have never seen before. There are pictures of the concentration camps that I\u2019m glad I don\u2019t remember and others of executions where you have the full set of pictures. It is clearly a very personal album.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PhotographsImages from Miller\u2019s wartime photography, which she captioned, clockwise from top left, \u201cHitler\u2019s sitting room, Eva Braun\u2019s house, Eva Braun\u2019s bed with [illegible] reading Mein Kampf, Eagle\u2019s Nest in flames\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoppen said it could be one of the most important albums of 20th century photography to come to light adding that it was certainly an \u201camazing discovery\u201d.<\/p>\n

As well as the prints documenting the horrors of the war, the book contains images from Miller and Beaton of iconic figures of the era including Marlene Dietrich, Fred Astaire, No\u00ebl Coward and Henry Moore.<\/p>\n

\"AThe sculptor Henry Moore<\/p>\n

\"AnNo\u00ebl Coward<\/p>\n

\"CollageWallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor<\/p>\n

Miller had been at the heart of some of the century\u2019s most enduring movements having worked with Man Ray in Paris in the Twenties and starred in a groundbreaking Jean Cocteau surrealist film. <\/p>\n

Her circle of friends included Pablo Picasso<\/a>, Charlie Chaplin and Leonora Carrington.<\/p>\n

\"AnMiller with Pablo Picasso, right, in his Paris studio<\/p>\n

In a video on Hoppen\u2019s website, the celebrated photographer Philippe Garnier says what is \u201cprofoundly touching\u201d about the book is its documenting of \u201csome of the horrors of WWII and its aftermath, balanced with photographs from different areas of the arts which herald an ambition to emerge from this war with hope and possibility intact\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"CollageThe actress Vivien Leigh<\/p>\n

\"ThePictures taken on the set of the film The Seventh Veil<\/p>\n

Richard Ovenden, Bodley\u2019s Librarian and the director of the university libraries at the University of Oxford, said the acquisition marked an important step in preserving this unique album for scholarship and in enriching our understanding of the role of photography in documenting the Second World War.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photographs<\/p>\n

He described it as a \u201chighly unusual record of the relationship between a darkroom technician and two great photographers\u201d.<\/p>\n

Haupt\u2019s devotion to Miller is clear from the handwritten notation at the start of the scrapbook: \u201cThis is the story of my favourite photographer Lee Miller \u2014 Vogue war correspondent who followed the American army from the beaches of Normandy, 5 days after D-Day, up to the final entry into Berlin and after that she continued her journey visiting countries that had been occupied, having many exciting experiences \u2014 here are a few of the beautiful pictures she sent back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A darkroom technician\u2019s scrapbook has been hailed as one of the greatest photographic records of the 20th century…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-514788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}