Of all the 20th-century Surrealists, few were as idiosyncratic and wilful as Pavel Tchelitchew, the Russian-born painter, stage designer and costume designer. The Chagall of noir, he was celebrated for his eerie geometric studies of heads and sexualized anamorphic landscapes.

Tchelitchew and Beaton met in 1931 and for several decades enjoyed/endured an on-again, off-again, friendship.
“Tchelitchew at first intimidated me (he could be devastating in his disapproval)
but soon cast an almost hypnotic influence over me,” recalled Beaton.

The artist died from a heart attack in 1957

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