Close your eyes and conjure up a mental image a 1930s film star. You'll end up picturing the work of George Hurrell… whether you know his name or not.
Hurrell rose to fame as the in-house portraitist at MGM before setting up his own studio. And his pictures did more than anyone’s to define the look of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Now the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC is putting 20 of his vintage prints on show in Star Power: Photographs from Hollywood’s Golden Age by George Hurrell (A Sequel).
The first Star Power installation ran from March 2024 until January this year. Now this second selection, running until January 2027, reads like a who’s who of the era. Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy, William Powell, Barbara Stanwyck… the list goes on.
Who was Hurrell?
Born in 1904, Hurrell originally trained as a painter. The first time he used a camera was to record his canvases. After moving to California in 1925, though, he found that his photographs sold better than his paintings, so he started building a career as a portraitist.
His big break came when he shot the Mexican actor Ramon Novarro in 1929. Novarro showed the results to the Canadian-American actress Norma Shearer, who was looking to shed her wholesome image and land the lead in The Divorcee. To aid her cause, Hurrell shot her in poses far more provocative than her fans had previously seen. Her husband, MGM production chief Irving Thalberg, then hired Hurrell to run the studio’s portrait department.
But Hurrell wasn't just in the right place at the right time: he was doing things differently. Before him, publicity stills were bland and interchangeable. Hurrell innovated by using hard, directional light to carve out cheekbones and throw everything else into shadow.
His portraits of Dietrich are a masterclass in the approach. In the picture shown at the top of this page, she leans against a fluted column in a pleated gown, the light raking across the folds of the fabric and the grooves of the pillar so that woman and architecture seem to merge together.
In another, she sits cigarette in hand, her trademark stare lit from above so a sharp shadow falls beneath her nose. That overhead light – high and in front of the face – flattered features, emphasised eyes and created a sculptural look that soon because synonymous with Hollywood glamour.
It wasn’t all smouldering looks, though. Some of the most best pictures in the show are the playful ones. In my favorite, Jean Harlow lies on a polar bear skin rug in a pale satin gown, grinning at the camera. It’s absurd, glamorous and slightly unhinged.
His style eventually fell out of fashion. By the 1950s, Hollywood wanted something different, and TV changed how studios promoted their stars. Hurrell moved into advertising, then had spent the 1970s and 80s shooting album covers for artists including Queen, Fleetwood Mac and Paul McCartney.
Today, though, his 1930s portraits define an era. Long before Instagram filters and beauty apps, he understood that a star’s image couldn't be just captured; it needed to be constructed, and that light was key to doing so.
Curated by senior curator of photographs Ann Shumard, Star Power: Photographs from Hollywood’s Golden Age by George Hurrell (A Sequel) is on show on the first floor of the National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC, until 10 January 2027.
