Untitled nude in shadow (Gigi Parrish)

George Hurrell
Untitled nude in shadow (Gigi Parrish)
Gelatin silver print, 1939
9 1/2 x 11 inches
Anonymous gift
1992.193

Hurrell met Gigi Parrish, the model for this photograph, at one of Pancho Barnes’s many pool parties in Laguna Beach. Parrish was living here with her husband—writer, illustrator, and painter Dillwyn Parrish. Gigi gained some fame as an actress in the 1930s. Self-assured and uninhibited, she had also posed nude for artist Clarence Hinkle. The year after this photograph was made, Gigi divorced Dillwyn and married journalist John Weld. The Welds published The Laguna Beach Post from 1949 to 1965. They and Hurrell were lifelong friends.