Greta Garbo, 1946

On one of his trips to Hollywood in 1932, Beaton met one of his greatest obsessions, Greta Garbo, who he would not encounter again until 1946 when an exclusive photoshoot was arranged at the Hotel Plaza in New York. Beaton said of this first meeting that it had been one of the most important things to havehappened in his life

Maria Callas, 1957

Beaton first travelled to New York in 1928 and, from that time forward, he returned every year, staying atvarious hotels whose suites he decorated and used as improvised studios

Mick Jagger, 1969

Beaton photographed Jagger for the second time in his suite at New York’s Hotel Plaza, and described him as ‘a good guy, incredibly photographic’

Francis Bacon, 1960

Beaton described Francis Bacon as ‘a brilliant but devastating painter’. In 1957, the photographer asked Bacon to paint him, and after a fruitless session, they tried again in 1960. In the interim, Beaton photographed Bacon at his studio in the Battersea neighbourhood of London

Marilyn Monroe, 1956

Beaton photographed Monroe in his Hotel Ambassador suite in New York, after she arrived an hour late. He later wrote that he forgave her for the delay in the moment because ‘her girlish ingenuity and cunningness broke my schemes’

Audrey Hepburn, 1963

In 1963, Beaton spent ten months designing sets and costumes for the film version of My Fair Lady, starring Audrey Hepburn. This earned him two Oscars for the art direction and costume design

Baroness Fiona Thyssen-Bornemisza, 1966

The New Zealand-born model was one of Beaton’s favourite muses

Barbara Hutton, 1961

This photograph was taken during Beaton’s stay in Tangier, where he attended a ball at Hutton’s palace in Sidi Hosni. The Woolworth heiress showed off her Cartier tiara studded with emeralds that had once belonged to the Grand Duchess Vladímir of Russia