Marilyn Monroe - Richard Avedon

A special engraver's proof of Richard Avedon's portrait of Marilyn Monroe — one of the most iconic and candid images ever made of her — laid in to a signed limited first edition of Richard Avedon: An Autobiography (Random House, New York, 1993), number 189 of only 250 copies.

Avedon described the sitting as hours of performance: dancing, singing, the full projection of Marilyn Monroe. Then the drop. When it was over, she sat quietly in the corner, expression gone. He approached carefully, unwilling to photograph her without her awareness. As he raised the camera, she didn't say no. That moment — the silence after the performance — is what the image holds.

The proof is offered here framed, independent of the book. 19.25 H × 16.75 W in.