Marilyn Monroe’s Personally Owned Copy of Rembrandt

A Book from Her Personal Library, Photographed on the Bookshelf of Her New York Apartment

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This volume of Rembrandt by Ludwig Münz comes from the personal library of Marilyn Monroe and offers a fascinating connection to her documented interest in art and the great masters.

More than simply a book she owned, Marilyn’s copy can be seen in a period photograph taken inside her apartment at 444 East 57th Street in New York City. In the photograph, Marilyn’s beloved dog, Maf, is seen in the living room with a bookshelf in the background. Among the books on the shelf is this very volume of Rembrandt. It is possible that Marilyn herself took the photograph of Maf.

The image provides a remarkable visual record of the book in Marilyn’s home during her lifetime and places it within the private surroundings where she lived, read and continued her lifelong pursuit of knowledge.

Marilyn Monroe and Rembrandt

Marilyn’s ownership of the book is particularly significant because her interest in Rembrandt was documented during her lifetime.

In the September 1956 issue of Screenland, writer Bill Tusher described Marilyn’s intellectual and artistic exploration during her time in New York. While studying acting and reading extensively, Marilyn was also spending time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art.

Tusher wrote that Marilyn had become “steeped in the world of Goya and Rembrandt.”

Her personal copy of Rembrandt provides a tangible connection to that contemporary account. Marilyn was not merely being associated with the artist by a magazine writer. A substantial volume devoted to Rembrandt was part of her personal library and was kept on the bookshelf in her New York home.

Turning its pages today offers an extraordinary connection to Marilyn’s private world.

The Library of Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe assembled a personal library of more than 400 volumes covering an extraordinary range of subjects. Literature, poetry, drama, biography, history, politics, philosophy, psychology, religion and art were all represented on her shelves.

Her books provide an intimate record of a side of Marilyn too often overshadowed by her public image. Reading and self-education were important parts of her life, particularly during her years in New York, when she immersed herself in acting, literature and the arts.

Rembrandt is an especially compelling example. Its significance is supported not only by its provenance but by contemporary reporting of Marilyn’s interest in the artist and photographic evidence showing the book in her home.

Category:

Marilyn's Library

Item:

Book Personally Owned by Marilyn Monroe

Title:

Rembrandt

Author:

Ludwig Münz

Special Note:

Documented in a period photograph on the bookshelf of Marilyn’s 444 East 57th Street apartment in New York

Collector’s Note

There is something particularly moving about owning a book that can still be seen exactly where Marilyn once kept it.

In the photograph of Maf inside her East 57th Street apartment, Rembrandt sits quietly on the bookshelf in the background, part of Marilyn’s everyday surroundings. More than six decades later, that very book is now part of The Marilyn Monroe Collection.

What makes it even more meaningful is knowing that Marilyn’s interest in Rembrandt was documented during her lifetime. The 1956 Screenland reference, the photograph of the book in her home, and the surviving volume itself come together to tell a much richer story about Marilyn and her appreciation of art.

When I turn these pages, I’m looking at the same reproductions Marilyn saw, in the same book she held in her hands. Few artifacts provide such a simple and direct connection to her private life.

For me, preserving Marilyn’s books is about preserving evidence of her curiosity and her desire to learn. Rembrandt is a wonderful reminder that Marilyn’s world extended far beyond Hollywood. Her books reveal a woman continually exploring literature, ideas, culture and art.