Marilyn Monroe: A British Love Affair

Hatton Gallery 25 January – 17 May 2014 Photographs and magazine covers from 1947 to 1962 celebrate the transformation of the world’s most popular pin-up into an acclaimed actress, highlighting the British photographers and personalities who worked with her. Marilyn Monroe: A British Love Affair shows photographs from the National Portrait Gallery including Antony Beauchamp’s poses of Monroe taken in 1951 wearing a yellow bikini and Baron’s portraits of Monroe bathed in Californian sunlight taken in 1954. Cecil Beaton’s 1956 photographs taken in his Ambassador Hotel suite in New York include Monroe’s favourite image of herself, clutching a rose. Born Norma Jean Mortenson in 1926, Monroe began her career as a model, rising to superstar status before her untimely death in 1962. During her career Monroe received a BAFTA nomination for her role alongside Laurence Olivier in The Prince and the Showgirl and a Golden Globe award for her role in Some Like it Hot. Her final completed film was 1961’s The Misfits, co-starring Clark Gable. Life photographer Larry Burrows was one of many photographers who covered Monroe’s four month visit to Britain including the press conference for The Prince and The Showgirl at the Savoy Hotel. Other photographs show Monroe at a Royal Command film performance meeting the Queen and there are also shots of Monroe with husband Arthur Miller, and co-star Laurence Olivier and his wife Vivien Leigh. Concluding the display is a recently acquired photograph of British Pop artist Pauline Boty pictured in front of one of her paintings of Monroe; a homage to one of the most enduring icons of the twentieth century. Marilyn Monroe: A British Love Affair, organised by the National Portrait Gallery, is on show at the Hatton Gallery from 25 January until 18 May 2014. Free entry.