Rare Risqué Jean Harlow Edwin Bower Hesser Vintage 1929 Pictorialist Photograph
Item History & Price
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ITEM: This is a very rare original first generation gelatin silver sepia antique photograph of the young and nude artfully posed film legend Jean Harlow, seen as a contemplative woodland nymph sprite from her infamous 1929 romp in Los Angeles' Griffith Park. The park was a frequent location for nude photo shoots by Edwin Bower Hesser and hundreds of images taken there appeared in the Art Studies magazines he published in the late 1920s/early 1930s. Harlow was an unknown model when she worked with Hesser (much like Norma Jean in her pre - Marilyn Monroe Blue Book model agency pin-up model days) and the year after this shoot her career took off on a tragically short trajectory with her star-making appearance in Howard Hughes's "Hell's Angels".
We last sold a still from this collection in early August, which we marketed incorrectly as "last still in the collection." Last week, we found 5 more stills from this shoot featuring Harlow in a mislabeled album, which we will be selling in the coming months. Our apologies for the earlier error.
This photo shoot has been documented in the April 1966 edition of Playboy Magazine which ran an article on Hesser and this photo shoot with the young Jean Harlow specifically, I included scans of this photo pictorial spread in Playboy at the bottom of this listing for your reference below, however the magazine is not included in this auction but is readily available on ebay.
About 15 years ago a collection of these original stills including this one were found in an east coast estate in a former employee of Edwin Bower Hesser's magazine publishing company. This is from that estate find and the photograph is 100% guaranteed an original first generation Edwin Bower Hesser photograph and the model is guaranteed to be Jean Harlow in a very revealing pose. This is the original document -- not a reprint of any kind.
Measures approx. 4" x 5" on a semi-gloss single weight paper stock.
CONDITION: Very good condition with light creasing and storage/handling wear as seen in clear large accurate scans. ****************
BELOW ARE A FEW SCANS FROM THE PLAYBOY MAGAZINE ARTICLE REFERENCED ABOVE IN OUR LISTING - THE APRIL 1966 EDITION SHOWING THIS PHOTO SHOOT AND SIMILAR POSES OF THE YOUNG NUDE JEAN HARLOW -- THESE ARE FOR REFERENCE, ENJOY ~
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