--- title: Marilyn Monroe at Home in Hollywood: Color Photos of the Star in 1953 description: LIFE.com presents color photos of the movie legend at her Hollywood home in 1953, when she was just 26 years old. canonical: https://time.com/3491250/marilyn-monroe-at-home-in-hollywood-color-portraits-1953/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-26T17:35:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:07:28.119Z og:title: Marilyn Monroe at Home in Hollywood: Color Photos of the Star in 1953 og:description: LIFE.com presents color photos of the movie legend at her Hollywood home in 1953, when she was just 26 years old. og:url: https://time.com/3491250/marilyn-monroe-at-home-in-hollywood-color-portraits-1953/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb051742746cec269/6987601355a8597cf3a8329e/marylin-monroe-at-home-07.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Marilyn Monroe at home, 1953. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Marilyn Monroe at Home in Hollywood: Color Photos of the Star in 1953 twitter:description: LIFE.com presents color photos of the movie legend at her Hollywood home in 1953, when she was just 26 years old. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb051742746cec269/6987601355a8597cf3a8329e/marylin-monroe-at-home-07.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Marilyn Monroe at Home in Hollywood: Color Portraits, 1953 by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Oct 26, 2014 5:35 PM UTC  Marilyn Monroe at home, 1953. Marilyn Monroe at home, 1953.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Oct 26, 2014 5:35 PM UTC In a quiet tribute to [Marilyn Monroe](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000054/), LIFE.com presents a series of color pictures by Alfred Eisenstaedt, made at the movie legend’s Hollywood home more than 60 years ago, in the spring of 1953, when the actress was just 26\. What’s perhaps most striking about these photos, especially in light of all we now know about Marilyn’s fraught and deeply sad life, is how relaxed, self-possessed and (dare we say it?) how _happy_ she looks. In 1953, her biggest, brightest roles—in _Bus Stop_, _The Seven Year Itch_, and the American Film Institute’s greatest American comedy of all time, [_Some Like It Hot_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Some%5FLike%5FIt%5FHot)—were still ahead of her, as were her unlucky marriages to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller and her increasingly lonely, desperate last years. But it’s worth noting that she really does not resemble a legend, an icon or an idol in these pictures. Instead, she looks like a beautiful young woman evidently, and perhaps momentarily, at peace with herself and her place in the world. All of that, of course, would soon change, and change for the worse. _But not yet_, Eisensteadt’s portraits seem to say. _Not yet._  Marilyn Monroe at home, 1953. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Black and white contact sheet from Alfred Eisenstaedt's 1953 photo shoot with Marilyn Monroe. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures  Marilyn Monroe poses casually at home, 1953. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Marilyn Monroe gazes into Alfred Eisenstaedt's camera, 1953. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Black and white contact sheet from Alfred Eisenstaedt's 1953 photo shoot with Marilyn Monroe. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures  Marilyn Monroe gazes into Alfred Eisenstaedt's camera, 1953. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Marilyn Monroe at home, 1953. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Black and white contact sheet from Alfred Eisenstaedt's 1953 photo shoot with Marilyn Monroe. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures  Marilyn Monroe at home, 1953. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Black and white contact sheet from Alfred Eisenstaedt's 1953 photo shoot with Marilyn Monroe. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures  Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Marilyn Monroe at home, 1953. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Black and white contact sheet from Alfred Eisenstaedt's 1953 photo shoot with Marilyn Monroe. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures  Marilyn Monroe, 1953. Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3491250/marilyn-monroe-at-home-in-hollywood-color-portraits-1953/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3491250/marilyn-monroe-at-home-in-hollywood-color-portraits-1953/"},"headline":"Marilyn Monroe at Home in Hollywood: Color Portraits, 1953","datePublished":"2014-10-26T17:35:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:07:28.119Z","description":"LIFE.com presents color photos of the movie legend at her Hollywood home in 1953, when she was just 26 years old.","url":"https://time.com/3491250/marilyn-monroe-at-home-in-hollywood-color-portraits-1953/","keywords":["Hollywood","photography","marilyn monroe","alfred eisenstaedt","Ben Cosgrove","Liz Ronk","actress","Icons","color photography","1953"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb051742746cec269/6987601355a8597cf3a8329e/marylin-monroe-at-home-07.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb051742746cec269/6987601355a8597cf3a8329e/marylin-monroe-at-home-07.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Marilyn Monroe at home, 1953.","caption":"Marilyn Monroe at home, 1953.","creditText":"Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3491250/marilyn-monroe-at-home-in-hollywood-color-portraits-1953/","name":"Marilyn Monroe at Home in Hollywood: Color Portraits, 1953"}}]}] ```