The
exhibition brought an ecstatic response from the British
Journal of Photography, and a flood of new commercial
work, but sitters in general, to say nothing of her
fellow professionals, were still slow to respond to
the new medium. Madame Yevonde saw it as her mission
to break down their prejudices and gave a number of
lectures on such subjects as 'Why Colour?'. In this
particular lecture she advanced the view that women
were so much better than men at handling colour because
it played such an important part in their daily lives,
in their choice of clothes, in furnishing their homes,
and in many other ways. The response to this lecture
in particular clearly showed that she was now seen as
a respected pioneer in the field, and it helped to win
over many new sitters, enchanted by her enthusiasm and
easy-going charm.
In
1933, she moved to a new studio in Berkeley Square,
in the fashionable heart of London's West End, where
many of her wealthy clients lived. It was here, over
the next seven years, that she produced much of her
best work, concentrating on colour to the almost total
exclusion of black-and-white. The move paid off in many
ways, and she was commissioned to take the official
wedding portrait of Alice, Duchess of Gloucester - an
extremely prestigious commission that soon led to similar
commissions from the Duke and Duchess of Kent and other
members of the royal family.
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