Sublime Silent Film Flapper Gwen Lee Exquisite Ruth Harriet Louise Photograph
Item History & Price
ITEM: This is a 1920s vintage and original glamour portrait photograph of MGM player Gwen Lee. The silent film actress is the picture of sophisticated and stylish flapper beauty and has been photographed in a beautifully lit, soft focus view by pioneering female Hollywood photographer Ruth Harriet Louise. Elegant, opulent, and fashionable, this is an exceptional portrait of the Jazz Age actress.
Photograph measures 8" x 10" on a glossy, double weight paper stock with the photographe...r's blind stamp in the bottom margin and MGM ink stamps on verso.
Guaranteed to be 100% vintage and original from Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
More about Gwen Lee:
She was one of the archetypal flappers of the Jazz Age. Blonde, blue-eyed and impeccably coiffured, we recall Gwen Lee as tall, blonde flibbertigibbets and gold-digging vamps in films of the late 1920's and early 30's. Gwen was born in Nebraska and attended school in Omaha. Having suitably shortened her name from 'Gwendolyn LePinski' to 'Gwen Lee', she began her career as a department store model. An early foray to the stage as a dancer then led to her 'discovery' by the director Monta Bell and a contract with MGM in 1925. Gwen was named a WAMPAS baby star in 1928 and was duly rewarded with starring or co-starring roles in pictures like Lucky Boy (1929), A Lady of Chance (1928) and The Actress (1928). Once it became apparent that silent pictures were on the way out she began to ardently take voice lessons. Her time in the limelight turned out to be rather brief, alas. Her career and public image took a substantial hit when the synchronisation of an early talkie, Untamed (1929), went badly array: during a dancing sequence with Robert Montgomery, poor Gwen could be heard mouthing the dialogue of her partner (and vice versa) -- no doubt to the great amusement of the audience. Not long after, her dizzy screen personae apparently carried over into real life, as she was twice sued by department stores for non-payment of goods. In 1931, she was also taken to court by her mother who claimed guardianship, charging that her daughter was 'incompetent to handle her affairs'. Inevitably, Gwen's movie roles declined, both and quality and in quantity. Down to bit parts, her career came to a swift end in 1938 after appearing in a bottom-of-the-bill potboiler at one of the Poverty Row outfits. After that, she faded from the scene. Gwen died in Reno, Nevada, in 1961, almost forgotten, at the age of 56.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: I.S.Mowis
More about Ruth Harriet Louise:
Ruth Harriet Louise (born Ruth Goldstein, January 13, 1903 – October 12, 1940) was an American professional photographer, the first woman photographer active in Hollywood; she ran Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's portrait studio from 1925 to 1930.
Louise began working as a portrait photographer in 1922, working out of a music store down the block from the New Brunswick temple at which her father was a rabbi. Most of her photographs from this period are of family members and members of her father's temple congregation.
In 1925 she moved to Los Angeles and set up a small photo studio on Hollywood and Vine. Louise's first published Hollywood photo was of Vilma Banky in costume for Dark Angel, and appeared in Photoplay magazine in September 1925. When Louise was hired by MGM as chief portrait photographer, she was twenty-two years old, and the only woman working as a portrait photographer for the Hollywood studios. In a career that lasted only five years, Louise photographed all the stars, contract players, and many of the hopefuls who passed through the studio's front gates, including Greta Garbo (Louise was one of only seven photographers permitted to make portraits of her), Lon Chaney, John Gilbert, Joan Crawford, Marion Davies, Anna May Wong, Nina Mae McKinney, and Norma Shearer. It is estimated that she took more than 100, 000 photos during her tenure at MGM. Today she is considered an equal with George Hurrell Sr. and other renowned glamour photographers of the era.
In addition to paying close attention to costume and setting for studio photographs, Louise also incorporated aspects of modernist movements such as Cubism, futurism, and German expressionism into her studio portraits.
Louise was born in New York City and raised in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She was the daughter of a rabbi, and both her parents immigrated from Europe to America before the turn of the century. She married writer and director Leigh Jason in 1927 at Temple B'nai B'rith, with William Wyler as Jason's best man. Although in 1930 her contract with MGM was not renewed and the position of chief portrait photographer went to George Hurrell, Louise continued working through 1932, and her last recorded photo session was with actress Anna Sten. The same year, she gave birth to a son, Leigh Jr., who died of leukemia when he was six years old. Louise herself died in 1940 of complications from childbirth.
Her brother was director Mark Sandrich, who directed some of the great Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers musicals, and she was a cousin of silent-film actress Carmel Myers.
Biography From: Wikipedia
Photograph measures 8" x 10" on a glossy, double weight paper stock with the photographe...r's blind stamp in the bottom margin and MGM ink stamps on verso.
Guaranteed to be 100% vintage and original from Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
More about Gwen Lee:
She was one of the archetypal flappers of the Jazz Age. Blonde, blue-eyed and impeccably coiffured, we recall Gwen Lee as tall, blonde flibbertigibbets and gold-digging vamps in films of the late 1920's and early 30's. Gwen was born in Nebraska and attended school in Omaha. Having suitably shortened her name from 'Gwendolyn LePinski' to 'Gwen Lee', she began her career as a department store model. An early foray to the stage as a dancer then led to her 'discovery' by the director Monta Bell and a contract with MGM in 1925. Gwen was named a WAMPAS baby star in 1928 and was duly rewarded with starring or co-starring roles in pictures like Lucky Boy (1929), A Lady of Chance (1928) and The Actress (1928). Once it became apparent that silent pictures were on the way out she began to ardently take voice lessons. Her time in the limelight turned out to be rather brief, alas. Her career and public image took a substantial hit when the synchronisation of an early talkie, Untamed (1929), went badly array: during a dancing sequence with Robert Montgomery, poor Gwen could be heard mouthing the dialogue of her partner (and vice versa) -- no doubt to the great amusement of the audience. Not long after, her dizzy screen personae apparently carried over into real life, as she was twice sued by department stores for non-payment of goods. In 1931, she was also taken to court by her mother who claimed guardianship, charging that her daughter was 'incompetent to handle her affairs'. Inevitably, Gwen's movie roles declined, both and quality and in quantity. Down to bit parts, her career came to a swift end in 1938 after appearing in a bottom-of-the-bill potboiler at one of the Poverty Row outfits. After that, she faded from the scene. Gwen died in Reno, Nevada, in 1961, almost forgotten, at the age of 56.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: I.S.Mowis
More about Ruth Harriet Louise:
Ruth Harriet Louise (born Ruth Goldstein, January 13, 1903 – October 12, 1940) was an American professional photographer, the first woman photographer active in Hollywood; she ran Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's portrait studio from 1925 to 1930.
Louise began working as a portrait photographer in 1922, working out of a music store down the block from the New Brunswick temple at which her father was a rabbi. Most of her photographs from this period are of family members and members of her father's temple congregation.
In 1925 she moved to Los Angeles and set up a small photo studio on Hollywood and Vine. Louise's first published Hollywood photo was of Vilma Banky in costume for Dark Angel, and appeared in Photoplay magazine in September 1925. When Louise was hired by MGM as chief portrait photographer, she was twenty-two years old, and the only woman working as a portrait photographer for the Hollywood studios. In a career that lasted only five years, Louise photographed all the stars, contract players, and many of the hopefuls who passed through the studio's front gates, including Greta Garbo (Louise was one of only seven photographers permitted to make portraits of her), Lon Chaney, John Gilbert, Joan Crawford, Marion Davies, Anna May Wong, Nina Mae McKinney, and Norma Shearer. It is estimated that she took more than 100, 000 photos during her tenure at MGM. Today she is considered an equal with George Hurrell Sr. and other renowned glamour photographers of the era.
In addition to paying close attention to costume and setting for studio photographs, Louise also incorporated aspects of modernist movements such as Cubism, futurism, and German expressionism into her studio portraits.
Louise was born in New York City and raised in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She was the daughter of a rabbi, and both her parents immigrated from Europe to America before the turn of the century. She married writer and director Leigh Jason in 1927 at Temple B'nai B'rith, with William Wyler as Jason's best man. Although in 1930 her contract with MGM was not renewed and the position of chief portrait photographer went to George Hurrell, Louise continued working through 1932, and her last recorded photo session was with actress Anna Sten. The same year, she gave birth to a son, Leigh Jr., who died of leukemia when he was six years old. Louise herself died in 1940 of complications from childbirth.
Her brother was director Mark Sandrich, who directed some of the great Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers musicals, and she was a cousin of silent-film actress Carmel Myers.
Biography From: Wikipedia
