In Cecil Beaton's photographs: Stephen Tennant, perhaps one of the most elegant people of the twentieth century, or at the very least one of the best-known aesthetes of the last one

In Cecil Beaton's photographs: Stephen Tennant, perhaps one of the most elegant people of the twentieth century, or at the very least one of the best-known aesthetes of the last one. Yet he became famous not for his lineage (though he came from the privileged class), nor for his profession (in truth, no one can say definitively what he did), nor for his achievements (since he never appeared in any particular role), but first and foremost for the way he knew how to look.

Having lived through an entire era, 1906 to 1987, Tennant was remembered by people precisely as a dazzling phenomenon of the world of the beautiful. Surrounded by celebrities from his youth, he contrived to keep away from his estate for not a single day over two decades and simply pass the time lying in bed. I shall not point fingers, but this man reminds me of someone.