Bert Stern lithograph: The Last Sitting

Bert Stern had taken some of the LAST photos of Marilyn Monroe only 6 weeks before her tragic death.

At the time,1962, Stern had a contract with Vogue and was commissioned to take photos of Monroe. Following the shoot Marylin was sent contact sheets and negatives. She sent them back with orange x's and scratches made with a hairpin over the images she did not want published. In Stern's book he states

"She hadn't just scratched out my pictures, she scratched out herself."

Her etchings on her face reveal a beautiful but insecure women who couldn’t see her own beauty.

"I see a woman who was everything to everyone, but nothing to herself."

I found this comment to be important because it encompassed the notion of being idolised as a sex symbol by others however it won't erase those very real and human emotions of self-contempt and doubt.

Two comments I regularly come across were that she looked tired and aged beyond her years (due to drinking) and another was that Monroe looked free and elegant in this new type of image Bert captured. Pertaining to duality, personally I do think she looked beautiful albeit in a tragic sort of way. She's gorgeous on the outside but I could sense she was desolate within.

quotes taken from:

https://classicsixny.com/blogs/classic-chronicles/the-last-sitting