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.
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 a 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.
