Frankly, my dear, I do give a damn: Treasures reveal couple’s passion
THE 20-year marriage of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier is one of the most famous love affairs in history.
An auction of the actress’s possessions has uncovered a little-known story that illustrates the strength of feeling which characterised their marriage. At the behest of her husband, the Welsh artist Augustus John, inset below, began an oil painting of Leigh in the early 1940s.
But the image was never finished – apparently because Olivier became convinced that the artist had become too infatuated with his subject.
The auction includes a red chalk sketch of the actress done by the artist in 1942, pictured far left, which is expected to fetch up to £7,000.
The September sale at Sotheby’s also includes a copy of the novel Gone With the Wind, which given to her by its author, Margaret Mitchell, as well as her personal script for the film, produced in 1939 by David O Selznick; her wig from the film A Streetcar Named De- sire in which she starred opposite Marlon Brando; and a gold ring inscribed “Laurence Olivier Vivien Eternally”. David Macdonald, director at Sotheby’s, said: “Historians talk about her being extremely difficult when her likeness was being taken because she just couldn’t sit still.
“She would move her head and because she was talking to the artist and in that quite intimate space, you can see Laurence getting a bit funny about it. “She was such an extraordinary beauty, she was so beguiling, and you can really see that inner depth in this drawing.”
Olivier and Leigh were both married to other people when they met and began an affair in the late 1930s. Letters between the two which were rediscovered in 2015 shed light on the depth of their love for one another. But the marriage was damaged by Leigh’s mental breakdowns and repeated affairs.
Both are thought to have been unfaithful to each other, and they divorced in 1960, with Olivier later marrying the actress Joan Plowright. The auction is taking place at the behest of her grandchildren, following the death of her daughter in 2015.