The collaged wall of works of art from across the centuries, figures from stage and screen and more created by Pauline Boty at her flat in west London was chosen as the beginning and backdrop for Huw Weldon’s introduction to Ken Russell’s 1962 documentary Pop Goes the Easel.
In addition to being filmed by Russell the changing combinations of predominantly cuttings from magazines and postcards were captured by numerous photographers including John Aston, Lewis Morley, Michael Seymour, Tony Evans, Michael Ward and latterly Roger Mayne with the image shown below from 1964.
The key beneath the image identifies some 60 items [with grey tinted backgrounds] which are detailed in the list following, including: title or name, artist or photographer and source and date where known. Unidentified items have a plain white background, whilst those still requiring confirmation are marked with the code [TBC] following their entry in the list
A note on the wall’s contents
It is greatly hoped that this page will provide a starting point for identifying the array of items chosen by Boty to adorn the wall, and that in time more of them will be identified and the numbered list expanded further.
All comments, corrections, clarifications and suggestions from visitors to the site in this regard would be greatly appreciated, via the Contact form here please: [link]
1 Apollo in Love with Daphne, Nicolas Poussin, 1664
2 The Princess de Broglie, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1851–3
5 The Court of the Gonzaga family, Andrea Mantegna, 1465–75
6 Paul Guillaume, Novo Pilota, Amedeo Modigliani, 1915
7 Back cover of Motif magazine #10, Winter 1962, designed by Peter Blake. Included by Boty in her work Celia with Some of her Heroes, 1962
8 U.S. Ship “Constellation”, James Henry Wright, 1850s?
14 View of Saint Cloud, Henri Rousseau, 1909
25 The Judgement of Paris, Peter Paul Rubens, 1632–5
27 Louise Brooks in the film The American Venus, 1926
29 Marilyn Monroe, photographed during the filming of The Misfits by Eve Arnold, 1960
30 Marcello Mastroianni, probably from the film Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, 1963
31 Peter Blake with his painting Girlie Door (1959) by unknown photographer
40 Edward Villella and Allegra Kent in George Balanchine’s ballet Bugaku. Photographed by Bert Stern for Vogue, August 15, 1963
44 Statue of King Amenhotep IV (made before he changed his name to Akhenaten) found in Karnak. Photo taken when the remains of the king’s Aten temple there were being excavated. Now held in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
46 Toshiro Mifune in Akira Kurosawa’s film Seven Samurai, 1954 [TBC]
50 Earlier arrangement of Pauline Boty’s collaged wall. Photographer [TBC]
51 Great Metaphysical Interior, Giorgio de Chirico, 1917
52 Marilyn Monroe photographed by Bert Stern for Vogue, June 1962
54 David Hockney with his painting The Hypnotist, photographed by Lord Snowdon, 1963
57 Landscape with the Sun and Moon (left pair of six folded screens), Anonymous, Japan, 15–16th century
59 Jane Avril, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1893
60 La Blouse roumaine, Henri Matisse, 1940
62 Brigitte Bardot, probably taken from the film A Very Private Affair, 1962 [TBC]
64 Marcel Proust (1871–1922) by unknown photographer
66 Monica Vitti and Alain Delon in Michelangelo Antonioni’s film L’Eclisse, 1962
69 Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Pink Dress, Diego Velázquez or Juan Bautista del Mazo, 1660
72 Natalie Wood [TBC]
76 Brigitte Bardot [TBC]
79 The Execution of Savonarola and Two Companions at Piazza della Signoria, Francesco Rosselli, 16th century
85 Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time (also called An Allegory of Venus and Cupid and A Triumph of Venus), Agnolo Bronzino, c. 1545
87 Flowers in a Wooden Vessel, Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1606–1607
88 Old Junier’s Cart, Henri Rousseau, 1908
89 Philip IV of Spain in Brown and Silver, Diego Velázquez, c. 1631–1632
90 Marie Lloyd [TBC]
91 Mary Pickford [TBC]
94 Portrait of Susanna Lunden or Le Chapeau de Paille, Peter Paul Rubens, 1622–1625
102 Jane Avril, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1899
106 Alain Delon in Michelangelo Antonioni’s film L’Eclisse, 1962
109 Monica Vitti [TBC]
111 Bob Dylan photographed by Barry Feinstein, 1963
113 Marilyn Monroe facing Arthur Miller during the promotion of the film Some Like it Hot at a press conference, Ambassador East-Hotel, Chicago. Photo by Manfred Linus Kreiner, 1959
116 Marilyn Monroe photographed by George Barris from Town magazine, November 1962. Boty used the cover image of Monroe from the same issue of Town as the source for her painting Colour Her Gone, 1962
120 The Death of Sardanapalus (La Mort de Sardanapale), Eugène Delacroix, 1827
122 Venus, Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1532
130 L-R: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Marilyn Monroe, Alain Delon
131 Fantastic Vision (Asmodea) from The Black Paintings, Francisco Goya, 1820–1823
132 Villa R, Paul Klee, 1919
134 Drum Majorette, Peter Blake, 1957
137 The infanta Maria Theresa of Spain or The infanta Maria Theresa aged 14, Diego Velázquez, 1652–1653
140 St. Michael, Raphael, c. 1504–1505
142 Portrait of the Royal Tiger, George Stubbs, c. 1770
147 A basket of roses, Ignace-Henri-Théodore Fantin-Latour, 1890
150 Landscape with the Sun and Moon (right pair of six folded screens), Anonymous, Japan, 15–16th century
151 The influence of Marie Antoinette on French fashion; plate from the reign of Louis XVI, 1774–1780
153 Marilyn Monroe as actress Lillian Russell, photographed by Richard Avedon, 1958
155 Basket of Flowers, Jacques Linard, 17th century
159 Table in Front of the Window, Pierre Bonnard, 1934–35
165 The Execution of the Doge Marino Faliero, Eugène Delacroix, 1825–1826
167 Marilyn Monroe photographed by Richard Avedon, New York, June 1958
168 Portrait of Doña Antonia Zárate, Francisco Goya, c. 1805. (Sunday Times magazine cover: 8 December 1963)
172 Brigitte Bardot [TBC]
Acknowledgements
With thanks to Sue Tate and Marcel Marée and Dr Patricia Usick at The British Museum.
Pauline Boty 