Karsh Signature

Yousuf Karsh, master photographer of the 20th century

Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor, 1946

We lost Elizabeth Taylor on this day, March 23, in 2011. Born in 1932, Taylor began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s. At the time of this portrait, made on Valentine’s Day in 1946, she was fourteen years old and had starred in her breakthrough role in National Velvet. Karsh wrote, “She was totally engrossed with her pet chipmunk and cat, the newest additions to her extensive home menagerie. I named the cat Michael. The next day she called to me from an open car on the M.G.M. lot and held up her newest feline friend. “Look who I have with me,” she cried triumphantly, “Michael Karsh Taylor!” (Biography in Images, MFA Boston)

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