Artist: Earl Moran
Title: "The Nude Marilyn Monroe, 1946", Signed by Hugh Hefner, Founder of Playboy Enterprises
Medium: Archival C-type print
Year: 1946
Edition: 1/10 Signed Prints
Height (inches): 24
Width (inches): 20
This piece is signed by Hugh Hefner.
This piece is unframed.
Description of piece:
Marilyn Monroe, then unknown, was photographed in 1946 by legend photographer, Earl Moran, who paid her $50 for the day. The image was acquired by Hugh Hefner, Playboy Enterprises for its first issue of Playboy magazine in 1953 and was made part of Playboy’s legendary Playboy Legacy Collection. “The Playboy Legacy Collection” was launched in 2007. It was first sold as a three-suite, 75 boxed collections of 48 - 16” x 20” sized prints and also as a limited series of individual 20” x 24” sized prints. It is a diverse selection of 48 revered images featured in Playboy magazine since its launch in 1953. Initially, the boxed set was sold to Playboy and photography aficionados for $65,000. Only 10 of the boxed sets contained a Hefner signed Marilyn Monroe print. Separately, Hefner personally signed fifteen, original Earl Moran, “Marilyn Monroe” semi- nude prints. This 2007 print is certified by International Images LLC as an original fine art archival print from the Playboy Legacy Collection, and as one of the 15 signed by Hugh Hefner. This Print is Certified by International Images as an original archival print from the Playboy Legacy Collection, printed in 2007 and comes with a Certificate of Authenticity, bearing the official, embossed Playboy Bunny logo seal.
Artist bio:
Earl Moran, American glamour artist and celebrity photographer, shot this early image of Marilyn Monroe, when she was still Norma Jeane Baker, in 1946, as one of a series of studies. This fine art archival print is a Black and White iconic shot of topless Marilyn Monroe, wearing just a striped skirt, posing on a couch. It was first published in Playboy in 1987 as part of Hugh Hefner’s tribute to Marilyn for the 25th anniversary year of her death and was featured in the Playboy Legacy Collection in 2007.
Includes a certificate of authenticity