YUL BRYNNER (1920–1985) - Audrey Hepburn in Venice, 1965

Archival pigment print, unique large format print

152,4 x 101,6 cm ( 60 x 40 in)

Photographer's estate edition stamp on the reverse, edition no.1/1

PROVENANCE the print comes directly from the photographer's daughter Victoria Brynner

Yul Brynner ranks indisputably among the most charismatic actors of the twentieth century. Born in Vladivostok to a Swiss-Mongolian engineer and a Russian mother, he began his career in Paris. Here he made his way as a circus performer, orchestra member and singer before, after stopovers on Broadway in New York, he succeeded in becoming a screen hero in Hollywood. His life was just as multifaceted as his career. 

A creative multi-talent, Brynner broke with conventional film stereotypes, married four times, sang in musicals, directed films, won an Oscar in 1956, and made his bald head his signature trademark. Photographers such as Dennis Stock, Cecil Beaton, Ernst Haas, and Inge Morath (with both of the latter he maintained a long friendship) captured him in distinctive photographs. In addition, Brynner was also a photographer himself. Not many knew of his talent, although during his life he produced more than 8,000 negatives and slides.

Brynner never tried to earn money with his photography, to publish or exhibit it. This made him all the more nonchalant about photographing some of the most important personalities in the history of film and stage: Charlton Heston as Moses in The Ten Commandments, Audrey Hepburn in a gondola in Venice, Elizabeth Taylor relaxing by the pool, Frank Sinatra climbing out of a helicopter, Deborah Kerr and Ron Howard on the set of "The Journey", and countless snapshots of his family. We see records of fleeting moments that are both glamorous and informal.

Perhaps that's precisely why Brynner's love of photography is so touching, we know that most of his photographs remained "unprinted" during his lifetime. Neatly arranged, he kept the negatives in a Louis Vuitton trunk in the attic of his house in Normandy. It was only after his death that Victoria Brynner brought her father's work to the public. Four of his photographs, including two rare vintages, this unique edition large format print of Audrey Hepburn and one print of a sold out edition (Frank Sinatra), we can gather here. Two of his cameras, the Leica MP-59 and the Leica MP-60, will be sold in our camera auction on November 25.