Rare vintage matte-finish 11 x 14 portrait of a young Greta Garbo in lovely soft focus, resting her head and casting a delicate, daydreaming expression, signed and inscribed in heavy fountain pen, "To Mrs. Lilian, Greta Garbo." Blindstamped in the lower border by the photographer, Ruth Harriet Louise, and stamped on the reverse, "Please credit, Ruth Harriet Louise, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Photographer." In fine condition, with fair contrast to the signature against the dark background.
In the summer of 1925, a 22-year-old Ruth Harriet Louise became Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's chief portrait photographer, distinguishing herself as the first female studio photographer in Hollywood—and its youngest. Working alongside rival and fellow MGM cameramen Clarence Sinclair Bull, Louise captured many of film's brightest stars, including Joan Crawford, Buster Keaton, Myrna Loy, and a young Greta Garbo. Two months after Louise joined MGM, she photographed the new Swedish actress for her first Hollywood portrait session. Garbo's fondness and trust in Louise soon enabled the photographer to shape the young star's now timeless visage. Given the sheer scarcity of Garbo signed photos-we have offered one other in the past decade-and the remarkable association between photographer and subject, this portrait exists as a tremendous piece of celluloid history, one which links two legitimate heroines and pioneers of vintage Hollywood.
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