Märta Torén (21 May 1925 – 19 February 1957) was a Swedish stage and film actress of the 1940s and 1950s. After attending the Royal Dramatic School in Stockholm, Torén began her career on the stage and from 1947 she appeared in films. She appeared on the cover of the June 13 issue of Life Magazine in 1949. One of her roles was opposite Humphrey Bogart in Sirocco (1951). She also co-starred with Dana Andrews in Assignment – Paris! (1952). On 19 February 1957 Torén died from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 31. She had been stricken less than 48 hours earlier after performing in a play in Stockholm.
Philippe Halsman (1906-1979) was born in Riga, Latvia and began his photographic career in Paris. In 1934 he opened a portrait studio in Montparnasse, where he photographed many well-known artists and writers — including André Gide, Marc Chagall, Le Corbusier, and André Malraux, using an innovative twin-lens reflex camera that he designed himself.
Part of the great exodus of artists and intellectuals who fled the Nazis, Halsman arrived in the United States with his young family in 1940, having obtained an emergency visa through the intervention of Albert Einstein.
Halsman’s prolific career in America over the next 30 years included reportage and covers for every major American magazine. These assignments brought him face-to-face with many of the century’s leading statesmen, scientists, artists and entertainers. His incisive portraits appeared on 101 covers for LIFE magazine, a record no other photographer could match.
Original silver print 13.5 x 11 with Halsman's stamp on the reverse. Dated 1949.
