Aggas, Robert (c. 1620–c. 1682), landscape and scene painter, was the son of Samuel Agas of St Andrew's parish, Holborn. The family was originally from Stoke by Nayland in Suffolk. Samuel Agas was the son of Edward Aggas, a bookseller and printer, and relative of ...
Article
W. C. Monkhouse
revised by Arianne Burnette
Article
Arthur, John (bap. 1708
Image
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton (1904–1980) by Dorothy Wilding, 1937 © Tom Hustler / National Portrait Gallery, London
Article
Hugo Vickers
Beaton, Sir Cecil Walter Hardy (1904–1980), photographer and designer for screen and theatre, was born at 21 Langland Gardens, Hampstead, London, on 14 January 1904, the eldest of the two sons and two daughters of Ernest Walter Hardy Beaton (1867–1936), timber merchant, and his wife, ...
Article
Beverly, William Roxby (1810
Image
Helen Manson Biggar (1909–1953) by Benno Schotz, 1932 Christie's Images Ltd. (2004)
Article
Douglas J. Allen
Biggar [married name Montlake], Helen Manson (1909–1953), sculptor, film-maker, theatre designer, and political activist, was born on 25 May 1909 at Dudley Drive, Hyndland, Glasgow, the eldest of three daughters of Hugh and Florence Biggar. She grew up in a socialist household, her father being a Christian socialist and founder member of the ...
Article
Charles Saumarez Smith
Bjørnson, Maria Elena (1949–2002), opera and theatre designer, was born in Paris on 16 February 1949, the daughter of Bjørn Bjørnson (1899–1986), chemical engineer, and Maria (Mia) Prodan de Kisbunn (1917–2004). Her father came from a distinguished Norwegian family (her great-grandfather, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson...
Article
Catherine A. Surowiec
Box, John Allan Hyatt (1920–2005), film production designer, was born on 27 January 1920 at 80 Fordwych Road, Hampstead, London, the first child and elder son of Allan Cyril Box (1887–1974), a civil engineer then serving as a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers...
Article
Alan Strachan
Bury, John (1925–2000), theatre designer, was born on 27 January 1925 at a nursing home in Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire, the only son of Charles Rugeley Bury (1890–1968), an industrial and academic chemist, and his wife, Emily Frances Margaret Adams, a botanist. He had a happy childhood, and was encouraged by his parents to take an interest in many subjects. He was educated at ...
Article
Cabanel, Rudolphe (1762/3–1839), engineer and theatre designer, was 'a native' of Aachen (some accounts say Liège) but lived in London for most of his life. Little is known of his family or his early years. His mother was probably Victoire Cabanel...
Article
Capon, William (1757–1827), scene-painter, architectural draughtsman, and architect, was born in Norwich on 6 October 1757, the son of Christopher Capon, portrait painter, and his wife, Anne, and was baptized at St Stephen's Church, Norwich, on 19 February 1758. At first he studied under his father but, preferring architecture, he moved to ...
Article
Carver, Robert (d. 1791), landscape and scene-painter, was born in Dublin, the son of Richard Carver (d. 1754), a history and landscape painter of some merit. Robert Carver studied under his father and also under Robert West at the Dublin Society Schools...
Image
William Evelyn Chappell (1907–1994) by Gordon Anthony, 1937 [as Elihu in Job by the Vic–Wells Ballet] V&A Images, The Victoria and Albert Museum
Article
Chappell, William Evelyn [Billy] (1907–1994), dancer and theatre designer, was born on 27 September 1907 in Wolverhampton, the only son of Archibald Chappell and his wife, Edith Eva Clara, née Blair-Staples. He was educated in Wolverhampton and Clapham, London, and at the Chelsea School of Art...
Article
Christmas family (per. c. 1610–c. 1640), sculptors, woodcarvers, and pageant artificers, were active in London. Gerard Christmas (bap. 1576, d. 1634) was born into a family that lived on the eastern edge of the City of London and may have come from ...
Image
Edward Anthony Craig (1905–1998) by unknown photographer © News International Newspapers Ltd
