Winter Auction 2015 closing February 7
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/8/2015
Of all Kubrick's 16 films over his half-century career, was there any more iconic, more disturbing scene than the Shining's twin girls in the hotel corridor? "Come play with us, Danny," they implored. "Forever...and ever...and ever." Cut to the grisly sight of their slaughtered corpses amid blood-smeared walls, an overturned chair and a long-handled axe. Redrum.
Now see here—almost three decades earlier!—a virtually unknown photo by the teenage future director that suggests the earliest stages of his cinematic development and unique artistic vision. Not only does this lass, her dress and the sparse decor foreshadow the ghostly Grady twins, but it also shows Kubrick's renowned skill for symbolism and psychoanalysis. Note how the vertical line of the corner divides his subject right down the middle like a metaphor for split personality, or good vs. evil, or even the duality of being a twin. It's a hauntingly perfect encapsulation of the accompanying article's theme—and arguably the most valuable of Kubrick's Look photos that has ever publicly surfaced.
Article: "Juvenile Jury—Meet the people...children tell how they should be punished"
Issue: June 19, 1947; Credit reads, "Photographed by STANLEY KUBRICK"
Size: 8" x 10"
Reverse: Look Magazine stamping and various later date-stamps, plus intriguing editorial notation, "face not available."
Authentication: PSA/DNA Type I LOA.