New images of Pauline Boty by David Cripps added to National Portrait Gallery Collection

National Portrait Gallery ref x203272 Pauline Boty with “Untitled (Red, Yellow, Blue Abstract)”, by David Cripps, 1961 © David Cripps,

The National Portrait Gallery have recently announced the addition of a number of images of Pauline Boty to their Collection by her then boyfriend David Cripps:

“Over 20 astonishing photographs of Pop artist Pauline Boty (1938-1966) have recently entered our Collection.

David Cripps photographed Boty as his girlfriend, during their relationship from around 1959 to 1961.

The photographs are intimate, close-up, informal, authentic. Some are underexposed; made in low light. Boty is bathed in sunlight, she is looking right back. In some she is smoking. Maybe she’s sleeping.

The photographs elucidate her nickname as ‘The Wimbledon Bardot’. She won a scholarship to the art school in 1954, studying stained glass under tutor Charles Carey. The earliest of these 35mm slides were made when she was a student of the Royal College of Art – where Cripps met Boty. She was gaining recognition – her vibrant creativity, confidence and charisma are evident in Cripps’s shots.

Cripps’s later photographs of Boty are dated 1961. She is shown with a classical bust and her painting Untitled (Red, Yellow, Blue Abstract), made that year. Here Boty is a proactive artist recently graduated from the RCA and soon to exhibit alongside Peter Blake, Christine Porter and Geoffrey Reeve at the AIA Gallery in London. The exhibition has since been cited as one of the first to show works of British Pop art.

Each of the artists selected a motif to form part of their name in the accompanying poster designed by David Cripps. Cripps, then more graphic designer than photographer, portrayed Boty on the cusp of her brief stardom, before featuring in Ken Russell’s 1962 film Pop Goes the Easel, and long before her posthumous recognition as a founder of British Pop.

If Pauline Boty, whose career and life were tragically short, is now widely celebrated, this should also be true of David Cripps who made these photographs. Cripps, as his 2013 obituary acknowledges, ‘launched the careers of countless artists and makers’. Like Boty he had been an art student – studying at the Sir Christopher Wren School in Notting Hill, linked to the Hammersmith School of Art, then the London College of Printing (now LCC). His skills shone as a graphic artist for Hans Schleger in his Fulham Road studio and through independent design jobs. Cripps enmeshed in the Swinging London art scene, made these personal shots of Boty on 35mm colour transparency film.

National Portrait Gallery ref x203282 Pauline Boty by David Cripps, c.1961 © David Cripps

Cripps went on to work as graphic designer and occasional photographer for the Observer. Importantly his photography later helped establish the image of contemporary makers as published in Crafts (from 1973) and demonstrated through his descriptive and insightful portraits in the Gallery’s collection. In 1991 he was awarded an MBE for his part in the Crafts Council’s support of excellence in contemporary design.

His subjects extend to other fields; he was frequently commissioned by his friend Bruce Bernard, editor of The Sunday Times magazine, who championed his ‘unique respect for subjects’ and his use of light ‘to illuminate, not to blind.’

These photographs of Pauline Boty illuminate further aspects of two creatives lives, on the cusp of their careers. They have been cared for in the intervening period by Cripps’s partner of many years, knitwear designer and maker Annie Fewlass, who currently manages David Cripps’s archive.”

Further information with additional photos can be seen in the blog post at the National Portrait Gallery here: [link]

Images by David Cripps held by the National Portrait Gallery including the new portraits of Boty can be seen here: [link]

Newly-discovered images of Pauline Boty by Roger Mayne available at Mary Evans Picture Library

Pauline Boty photographed by Roger Mayne in the kitchen area of the flat she shared at the time with fellow British artist Jane Percival © Roger Mayne Archive / Mary Evans Picture Library

Mary Evans Picture Library recently announced the discovery of a number of previously unseen images of Pauline Boty by Roger Mayne:

“Boty was friends with the photographer Roger Mayne and his wife Anne Jellicoe when they lived in Addison Avenue near Holland Park. We have had Roger Mayne’s photographs of Pauline on our website for a number of years, but recently we were amazed when the Roger Mayne Archive presented us with a set of photographs we have never seen before. The pictures give a peek into Pauline’s flat with its walls adorned with her famous collage. Some feature fellow artist and flatmate Jane Percival while others capture Pauline’s legendary beauty and self-assured sexuality. We’re thrilled to make them available.”

Pauline Boty photographed by Rogert Mayne in her flat at 7a Addison Avenue in Holland Park, London © Roger Mayne Archive / Mary Evans Picture Library

Roger Mayne’s biography on Wikipedia can be seen here [link] and his photos of Pauline Boty at Mary Evans Picture Library here [link].

All photographs by Roger Mayne, including those of Pauline Boty, are copyright of the Roger Mayne Archive and can be licensed through its representative, Mary Evans Picture Library – www.maryevans.com. Please email pictures@maryevans.com with any enquiries.

New images by John Aston added to Photos section of website

Contact sheets of Pauline Boty, c. 1962/63, photographed by John Aston. © Estate of John Aston

Many thanks indeed to the Estate of John Aston for agreeing to allow a selection of his portraits of Pauline Boty from the contact sheets above to be shown on the website. The images are, for the most part, unseen at large before.

John Aston trained as a photographer and graphic designer, starting his career as art editor for the magazine Photographic Review before joining the BBC Publishing division. He later became manager of the BBC’s Graphic Design Studios where his contributions included the iconic spinning globe ident. Aston photographed Boty on two occasions, his images accompanying the article “Pauline Goes Pop” in Men Only magazine’s issue of March 1963. One of his portraits of Boty is held by the National Portrait Gallery, which includes the only surviving record of her painting of Marilyn Monroe with beads, later overpainted by the work “Colour Her Gone”.

John Aston’s photos can be seen here: [link]

For information on the licensing any of these images please get in touch via the Contact form here: [link]

Rarely-seen photos of Pauline Boty and Clive Goodwin shared with paulineboty.org

Many thanks to Clive Goodwin’s nephew for sharing a number of press cuttings and photos recently, and for allowing a selection to be shown here on the website.

The first is of Pauline Boty and Clive Goodwin attending a family wedding in 1964 with the former presumably wearing the same Liberty cloche hat by her Royal College of Art friend James Wedge (as identified by Adam Smith) she wore when she and Goodwin were married at Chelsea Register Office on 24 June 1963, seen in a black and white news item from the time.
The second photo is an undated publicity shot of Goodwin, presumably from the mid- to late-1950s.
And the third is of a programme for a production of Antony Brown’s Paradise Street for the Studio Theatre Club on 20 January 1957 crediting Goodwin as Producer.

Pauline and Clive attending a family wedding in 1964. Photo courtesy of Clive Goodwin’s nephew

c. 1950s publicity shot of Clive Goodwin by Landseer of Dean Street, London WC2. Photo courtesy of Clive Goodwin’s nephew

Programme for Antony Brown’s “Paradise Street”, 20 January 1957. Photo courtesy of Clive Goodwin’s nephew

Pauline Boty signed photo by John Aston sold at RR Auction

Pauline Boty signed photo by John Aston, 1962. Image courtesty of RR Auction

Earlier this week the photo above by John Aston of Boty smoking a cigarette was sold by RR Auction based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, specialists in rare manuscripts, autographs, and historic artefacts. Signed and inscribed in fountain pen, “To George, Best wishes, Pauline Boty”. Vintage glossy 8.75 x 5.75 inch photo. Price realised: $1,242 [plus Buyer’s Premium]. Estimate: $200+.

Taken in 1962, this is from a series John Aston took which included a portrait of Boty standing in front of a painting by her of Marilyn Monroe, mimicking Monroe’s pose with beads in mouth. The whereabouts of this are now unknown, although it is possible that it was overpainted to become “The Only Blonde in the World”.

Please click here to see the version held by the National Portrait Gallery [link]

New photos added to the site, courtesy of Geoffrey Reeve

The first of a number of new images of Pauline Boty has been added to the website thanks to the generosity of one of her friends and fellow RCA students, Geoffrey Reeve, who also co-exhibited his paintings in the pioneering exhibition Blake, Boty, Porter, Reeve at the AIA Gallery in 1961.
Pictured below is Boty with fellow students from the stained glass department, photographed by Reeve for an article entitled “It’s Magic” in ARK 33 magazine, Autumn 1962.
Further of his portraits of Boty and her contemporaries will be shown in due course on the site via In Focus>Photos, changing on a regular basis.
Over 30 of Reeve’s photos are available to license from Bridgeman Images for personal, presentation and editorial use here: [link]