Gelatin silver print on semigloss photographic paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 19 7/8 × 16 inches (50.5 × 40.6 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed in black ink, lower left: "46/50"; inscribed on verso in black ink, lower left to lower center: "Christine Keeler '63. Photography Lewis Morley. | Printed by Lewis Morley. | (Edition 1991)"; in red pencil, lower right: "LM, 2010, 55"
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Gift of Dr. J. Patrick and Patricia Kennedy
A Decade of Gifts and Acquisitions (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-06-01 - 2017-08-13)
Gallery Label:
Morley’s greatest success came in 1963 when he photographed an iconic image of Christine Keeler sitting astride an Arne Jacobsen-style chair. The image was the very last exposure on his roll of film and was captured in the immediate aftermath of the sensational resignation of the Secretary of State for War John Profumo after his extramarital affair with Keeler was exposed. It was revealed that Keeler was simultaneously in a sexual relationship with the Russian naval attaché Yevgeni Ivanov, thus raising the prospect that Russian intelligence had access to British secrets at the height of the Cold War. Morley’s celebrated image, which captured the spirit of the times, was used as a poster child for the movie Scandal (1989) and has been widely circulated. Gallery label for A Decade of Gifts and Acquisitions (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-06-01 - 2017-08-13)