From the Dolce Vita to Swinging London – Knightsbridge’s Hotel Baglioni shows classic photos of superstars
By James Brewer
Oooh look! Isn’t that Audrey Hepburn exactly as when she was in the Roman countryside for the filming of War and Peace in 1955? And not far away can you espy Brigitte Bardot coolly posing with a lunchtime cigarette? Now, switch your gaze to King’s Road, Chelsea, where Sixties models Jean Shrimpton, and Twiggy, are in the frame.
See for yourself the classic photos displayed for a duration in the foyer and cocktail bar of the five-star Hotel Baglioni in Knightsbridge which summon up the era of such superstars. Audrey Hepburn, one of the all-time leading ladies, rightly has a leading role in this spectacle.
The display From the Dolce Vita to Swinging London takes us through history with photographs selected from the archive of Iconic Images, a company which owns work of, and represents, many of the world’s most renowned photographers. These paragons of perfection here are Terry O’Neill, Douglas Kirkland, Michael Joseph, Norman Parkinson and Michael Ward, whose compositions have long featured in “the frontline of fashion, rock, film, politics and royalty.”
Their limited-edition prints from these leading lights behind the camera are treasured souvenirs of among others the elegant and appealing Hepburn (1929-93), and such scoops as Bardot relaxed in 1968, at a producer’s lunch in Deauville before the filming of the 1968 Western movie Shalako. This was the first time that Bardot was meeting her co-star, Sean Connery. That edition of prints is “co-signed” by Bardot and O’Neill.
Iconic Images has collaborated with London-based Carola Syz Projects to present this dazzling collection. Carola Syz, who grew up in Rome, has been an art collector and fine art photographer herself, and is now a curator and art advisor. The display is co-curated by Francesca Filippini Pinto, a one-time investment banker who is a director at Magnum Photos, a cooperative of acclaimed photographers.
Terry O’Neill showed Audrey Hepburn – who was later to be inducted into the International Best Dressed Hall of Fame List – in Paris in a white felt helmet and Oliver Goldsmith sunglasses for her role in William Wyler’s 1966 comedy How to Steal a Million.
Norman Parkinson (1913-1990) was the cameraman who recorded Hepburn for Glamour magazine wearing a Givenchy afternoon cocktail dress at Villa Rolli outside Rome It is claimed that Parkinson’s photographs created the age of the supermodel.
Milton H Greene (1922-1985) a Hollywood and fashion specialist, photographed Audrey Hepburn in the Roman countryside during the filming of ‘War and Peace’, August 1955, and for Life magazine during the filming of Sabrina in Malibu in September 1953.
“The 60s was defined by rebellion, transformation and innovation,” Carola declares in her promotional material for this extravaganza. “From the King’s Road to Carnaby Street, Swinging London was alive with the sound of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Twiggy and Audrey Hepburn set trends whose timeless appeal persists to the present day, while across the channel, Brigitte Bardot became a cinematic sex goddess, breaking female stereotypes and nudity taboos. It was a decade in which Italian cinema blossomed, with stars like Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Claudia Cardinale, and Monica Vitti becoming some of the most popular and beloved actresses in the world.”
O’Neill, who died in 2019, for years was ‘everywhere’ in establishing his niche – which turned out to be a very large one – a chronicle of the emerging faces of the film, fashion and music scenes that would go on to define the Swinging Sixties. That is besides his bulging portfolios of politics, royalty and screen celebrities.
Among other scoops, O’Neill captured on film a barefoot Jean Shrimpton on King’s Road in Chelsea in 1963; and model Twiggy, born Lesley Hornby, with a bunch of flowers in Knightsbridge in 1966. O’Neill pictured Sophia Loren in a rumpled bed during the filming of Brass Target in Switzerland in 1978 He snapped The Beatles (pretending to smarten up their hair) ahead of their appearing on ABC Television’s Big Night Out at Didsbury Studio Centre in Manchester on September 1, 1963.
Douglas Kirkland, who died in 2022, had posed before his lens the stars of more than 100 movies. He memorably captured Peter Sellers and Britt Ekland during the filming in Rome in 1965 of Paparazzo. At Sarum Chase, a Tudor mansion in Hampstead, on June 7, 1968, Michael Joseph (very much still active) pictured the Rolling Stones during a photoshoot for their album Beggars Banquet; earlier, in 1963, O’Neill had the Stones line up outside the Tin Pan Alley Club in London.
From the Dolce Vita to Swinging London, a selling exhibition, is at Hotel Baglioni, 60 Hyde Park Gate, London SW7, until September 30, 2024. For sales, contact art@carolasyz.com
