A signed gelatin print of Richard Avedon’s 1957 photo of Marilyn was sold for $84,000 at Sotheby’s in New York last week. Often referred to as ‘Sad Marilyn,’ it attracts high bids whenever auctioned – another signed print previously sold for $168,000 at Sotheby’s back in 2021, while an artist’s proof fetched a staggering $882,000 at Christie’s earlier this year.
“There was no such person as Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn Monroe was someone Marilyn Monroe invented, like an author creates a character. For hours she danced and sang and flirted and did this thing that’s—she did Marilyn Monroe. And then there was the inevitable drop. And when the night was over, she sat in the corner like a child, with everything gone. I saw her sitting quietly without expression on her face, and I walked towards her but I wouldn’t photograph her without her knowledge of it. And as I came with the camera, I saw that she was not saying no.” – Richard Avedon
While some believe Avedon’s portrait shows us the ‘real’ Marilyn, her friend Maureen Stapleton strongly disagreed – as the actress once told author James Grissom.
“Why are you showing me that? I hate that picture. I hate it because it’s sad Marilyn; tragic Marilyn. Piling on the myth. People tearing their shirts and moaning about their lost opportunities to save her. I get asked a lot to talk about her, and I usually ignore people, because they see what they want to see. And they didn’t know her or meet her or spend time with her, but she’s our lost angel, the Little Match Girl, out in the snow, dying, seeking shelter. Bullshit. Of course there was sadness! Who isn’t sad? Who doesn’t have tragedy? I have an idea of what was done to Marilyn, but we lose the girl—I know I’m an antique for calling her a girl—but she was a girl. A sweet, serious girl who just wanted to get better—at everything. She absolutely read more than I did. She really cared about her acting. She cared about people. I’m tired of our putting her in the designer-crafted hair shirts.”
In the same auction, a portfolio of 10 colour prints from Marilyn’s 1962 Vogue shoot with Bert Stern sold for $42,000 – and a signed print from the Black Dress Sitting fetched $10,800. However, another signed print from Marilyn’s 1953 shoot with LIFE photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt went unsold.
The Marilyn Report 