Artist/Maker Alexander Brook (1898 - 1980)

Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982)

Oil on canvas

Overall: 49 × 40 × 3 in. (124.5 × 101.6 × 7.6 cm)

Gift of Time Inc.

2015.41.12

This portrait of the Swedish-born film actress, Ingrid Bergman, is the work of the artist, Alexander Brook, who was commissioned to paint Bergman for the January 15, 1945 issue of LIFE. Brook’s portrait of then twenty-nine-year-old movie star depicts her in a black and white striped jacket with a red sash, hands clasped in front of her, sitting on a stone slab surrounded by rocks and sand, under a stormy sky. Bergman looks directly at the viewer, with a self-contained sensuality, but remains detached and aloof in her pose. Most likely the actress sat for the portrait in the artist’s studio, with the artist possibly creating the background from one of her movie sets. The short text accompanying the image relates some anecdotes about her formal entrée into Hollywood five years earlier. This short narrative is relayed in a casual and glib manner, and includes such tidbits as her food preferences, weekly salary, and real estate purchases. This picture is the second in a trio of paintings for LIFE that Brook painted of leading ladies of the screen, the other two being Bette Davis and Merle Oberon. According to Bill Hooper, archivist for TIME, Inc., Brook offered to give the actresses their respective paintings; reportedly, Bergman declined to accept hers.

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