The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 15, 2025

Pixelated black-and-white computer composite of multiple White, women movie stars' faces into a headshot, looking at us. The face and jaw line are square with a wide mouth, thin upper lip and slight bow lip with semi-dark lipstick. The face has long, dark eyelashes and sculpted, arching eyebrows. Long, curly hair cascades down around the face, lighter at the scalp and darkening towards the neck.

First Beauty Composite: Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Sophia Lauren, Marilyn Monroe

1982, printed 1999

Nancy Burson

(American, b. 1948)
America
gelatin silver print
Image: 20.9 x 22.7 cm (8 1/4 x 8 15/16 in.); Framed: 46.4 x 46.3 cm (18 1/4 x 18 1/4 in.)
The Jane B. Tripp Charitable Lead Annuity Trust 2020.75
© Nancy Burson
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Standards of beauty vary not only across cultures but also through time.

Description

By compositing the faces of female movie stars from two different eras, Nancy Burson helps us see how the type of face considered photogenic and therefore beautiful changed over the space of just a couple of decades. Curiously, creating digital composites of women took Nancy Burson longer than producing composites of men because women’s hairstyles are much more varied.
  • 1999
    Studio of the Artist
    2000
    (Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA)
    2000-2020
    John J. McDonough Museum of Art, Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH
    March 2, 2020
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Burson, Nancy, Richard Carling, and David Kramlich. Composites: Computer-Generated Portraits. New York: Beech Tree Books, 1986.
    Burson, Nancy, Michael L. Sand, Lynn Gumpert, Terrie Sultan, and Christopher C. French. Seeing and Believing: The Art of Nancy Burson. Santa Fe, N.M.: Twin Palms, 2002.
  • {{cite web|title=First Beauty Composite: Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Sophia Lauren, Marilyn Monroe|url=false|author=Nancy Burson|year=1982, printed 1999|access-date=15 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.75