Scarce and unusually early 4.6 x 9.2-inch portrait, boldly signed and inscribed in violet fountain pen in the 1910s. In good condition for its age, with some minor toning and foxing to the borders. On stage from the age of six, Mary Pickford developed her acting abilities for a decade before making her film debut in 1909. Under the direction of D.W. Griffith at American Mutoscope and Biograph, she became America's Sweetheart and the most popular star of the silent era, cranking out roughly 50 films per year through 1912. For the remainder of the decade, she shifted her focus to writing and producing films, and, co-created United Artists Pictures with Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. in 1920. During this period, she starred in her only horror film, William Beaudine's Sparrows (1926). Pickford went on to co-found the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927, which, awarded her two Oscars: One for Coquette in 1929 and a Lifetime Achievement trophy in 1976.

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