NORMA SHEARER - ORIGINAL ART SIGNED 01/1940 CO-SIGNED BY: GRIFFITH - HFSID 275382

NORMA SHEARER
The actress signs an original portrait in January 1940, the year she starred in Escape, one of her last three films (she would retire from the screen in 1942).
Original Art signed: "Norma Shearer/January 1940". Color, 7x9. Also signed: "Griffith/1939" by the artist. Pencil notes (unknown hand, but possibly Griffith's) on verso state that this original drawing was sent to Shearer on December 14, 1939 and received back on April 10, 1940. Affixed to verso are three clippings: a return address from Shearer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in Culver City, California; a brief newspaper biography of Shearer; and, a brief bioigraphy of Shearer's husband, Irving Thalberg. Thalberg's article, which was copyrighted in 1939, also bears a pencil notation: "Birthdays/May 30, 1939". In 1940, Shearer starred in just one feature film, Escape, in which she portrayed Countess Von Treck opposite Robert Taylor. Norma Shearer (1903-1983) won one Best Actress Academy Award for The Divorcee (1929-1930), and she was nominated for five more: Their Own Desire (1929-1930), A Free Soul (1930-1931), The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), Romeo and Juliet (1936) and Marie Antoinette (1938). She was married to MGM producer Irving Thalberg until his early death (1936). Shearer turned down the starring role in Mrs. Miniver, and, by some accounts, did the same for the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind. She retired from films after 1942. Slightly soiled at blank margins on front and on verso, else fine condition.