1956 Signed Photograph of Marilyn Monroe by Cecil Beaton

A 1956 Cecil Beaton portrait of Marilyn Monroe, signed by the Hollywood starlet.

This beautiful, half length, black and white (sepia toned) photograph of the famous Hollywood icon, pictured lying on a bed holding a flower across her chest was shot by the renowned photographer Cecil Beaton. The photograph (approximately 7"x7") is inserted onto an off-white photographers mount (approximately 10"x8"). The piece is signed 'For Gene, Love and Kisses, Marilyn Monroe'. In superb condition, mounted, framed and glazed, this unique item was acquired for Gene Gill in 1960 by the actress Madge Kennedy during the making of the Monroe film Let's Make Love in which she played the part of 'Miss Manners'. Monroe had told Madge that the photograph taken by Beaton was her personal favourite. A fantastic and extremely rare item.

The photo itself comes from a famous 1956 session when Cecil Beaton took on a unique assignment in Marilyn Monroe. Until approximately one year before, Marilyn was primarily photographed in the skimpy and revealing, the Queen of the Pin-Up. But, at the close of 1954, during her divorce from baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn took action on her longing to be respected, not only as an actress, but as a person.

Thus, in 1956, when she entered the suite of the Ambassador Hotel in New York City, to meet with Cecil Beaton, it was without the girlish pin-up attitude the public was used to seeing in her photos. She was sexy, yet sophisticated, playful, but with a new sheen and class. On the day they spent together, with their beloved camera between them, they created magic, the results with which Monroe was especially enthralled.

"Miss Marilyn Monroe calls to mind the bouquet of a fireworks display, eliciting from her awed spectators an open-mouthed chorus of oohs and aahs ..." (Cecil Beaton, June 1956)

See our magazine profile on Marilyn Monroe here