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EARL MORAN.
“Lady in the Light (Marilyn Monroe at Age 20).” Oil on canvas.
914x610 mm; 36x24 inches. Signed in full, lower left image. Small
area of flaking in upper left. Elaborate gold frame. Accompanied
by Moran’s original typed certificate for the painting dated July 1,
1979 with the price listed at $3,500 and the title as given in
parentheses above.
[20,000/30,000]
Marilyn Monroe met Earl Moran in 1946 when she was 19 years old
and working for the Blue Book Model Agency in Hollywood under her
married name, Norma Jeane Dougherty. By then, he was already a famous
pin-up artist, most notable for his Brown & Bigelow calendar girls. She
became his favorite model and he painted and photographed her many
times over the following years for calendars and advertisements.
After a long and prolific career, Moran switched artistic gears and moved
to Las Vegas in 1960 to concentrate on fine art painting. Over the next
several years, he worked on a series of boudoir-themed oil portraits, many
of which were erotically-charged renderings of his favorite model and friend
at different stages of her life which he sold to collectors and through the
Aaron Brothers Galleries in Laguna Beach, California.The mood and
composition of these later canvases, including this painting, evoke Bert
Stern’s sensuous photographs of Monroe in 1962 which have become
famous as the last sitting before her untimely death six weeks afterwards.
Provenance: Rosemary and Franklin L. Ashley to private collection in
Oklahoma City. Ashley was a well-known Hollywood reconstructive
plastic surgeon who counted Ann-Margret, Rita Hayworth, and John
Wayne among his patients. He also dedicated his time and money to
performing surgery on deformed and injured children in Vietnam and
Africa. Rosemary was friends with Monroe and the star had wanted Dr.
Ashley to perform reparative surgery on her breast implants done by
another surgeon.While Moran painted other versions of this pose which
have come to market, this is the first appearance at auction of this canvas.