BIOGRAPHY WRITINGS PICTURES DISCUSSION JOURNAL EVENTS

Catalogue of the T. E. Lawrence Centenary Exhibition
held at the National Portrait Gallery, London, 1988-9

Lawrence of Arabia


 

 

41. BIRD’S EYE VIEW OF THE CHATEAU DE BONAGUIL

By Cyril Fredrick Cherrington Beeson after Viollet-le-Duc, 1908

It was not until the spring of 1909 that Lawrence began to take drawing lessons; before this he relied on the artistic skills of his friend C. F. C. Beeson. When Lawrence had to put together the plans and drawings which accompanied his thesis, submitted to the Examiners in March 1910, Beeson helped by tracing material from published sources.

Beeson mischievously put his own initials at the bottom of this bird's eye view of Bonaguil, traced from Viollet-le-Duc.1 He also showed Lawrence, top right, arriving at the castle on his bicycle. Lawrence hatched over the offending initials (centre, bottom) and replaced them with his own, but finally decided not to use the drawing in the thesis.

The Curators of the Bodleian Library, Oxford (MS.Res.c.52)

1. M. Viollet-le-Duc, op.cit. (40, above), p. 167.

Pen and ink, 20 x 12.5

Signed br.: T. E. L. and inscribed with the title

Provenance: Given by A. W. Lawrence.

Literature: Crusader Castles II, ill. between pp.54 and 55.

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From the catalogue compiled by Jeremy Wilson and others for the T. E. Lawrence Centenary Exhibition held at the National Portrait Gallery, London, 1988-9. Printed edition (National Portrait Gallery Publications, 1988) Copyright © N. Helari Ltd 1988. Web edition Copyright © J & N Wilson 1998. T.E. Lawrence Studies - www.telawrence.info - is edited by Jeremy Wilson. Its costs are sponsored by Castle Hill Press