IT is some fifty years since the death of the celebrated double Oscar and Tony award winning British actress, Vivien Leigh.

But this week, until Sunday June 17, visitors to Haynes Fine Art’s gallery in Broadway have the opportunity to see how a British starlet lived and entertained fellow glitterati.

A spokesman said: “Haynes Fine Art’s flagship gallery is exhibiting a room-set full of Vivien Leigh’s personal belongings which opens to the public for the duration of the Broadway Arts Festival in the Cotswolds.

“The British actress, of course, took Hollywood by storm when she shot to fame in her role as Scarlett O’Hara in the 1939 American epic ‘Gone With The Wind’, starring opposite Clark Gable (Rhett Butler).

The spokesman added “The decorative room setting shows her passion for interior design, modern British and colourful French paintings.

“Amongst these is a tapestry wing back armchair, which she and husband Sir Laurence Olivier actually bought in Broadway. The documentation and photographs of the chair in the Oliviers’ Buckinghamshire home are also within the exhibition.”

The spokesman added: “Another highlight is a John Klimo signed gouache and oil pastel on paper, which depicts Vivien Leigh and Sir Laurence styled as the man and woman in Lautrec’s Divan Japonais poster design, which Klimo signed and inscribed ‘Happy Birthday Vivien Leigh’ for her 40th birthday.

“In her letter of gratitude, Leigh expressed her surprise that Klimo should know that it was her favourite Lautrec poster and suggested that she thought she and her husband should go to a fancy dress ball as the two characters. Other highlights include Les Anemones by Louis Valtat (Valtat [1869-1952] who knew and collaborated with artists such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir* and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec), an early 19th century backgammon and chess table and an 18th century fruitwood card table.”

Further details at: 01386 852649.