Honestly, if you saw a photo of a woman scrubbing her shoulders in a bathtub today, you probably wouldn’t think much of it. We live in the age of the "selfie," after one another. But the Lee Miller self portrait taken in April 1945 isn't just a picture of a woman having a soak.
It’s an act of war.
The woman in the tub is Lee Miller. The bathroom belonged to Adolf Hitler. And the mud on the floor? That came from Dachau.
The Day the World Broke
Let's get the timeline straight because the context is everything here. It was April 30, 1945. Most people know that as the day Hitler killed himself in a bunker in Berlin. While he was reaching for his pistol, Lee Miller and her fellow photographer (and sometimes lover) David E. Scherman were crashing in his private apartment at Prinzregentenplatz 16 in Munich.
They weren't supposed to be there. They were war correspondents, and they were exhausted.
Earlier that same morning, they had walked through the gates of the Dachau concentration camp. Think about that for a second. Miller hadn't just seen "news" of the Holocaust; she had smelled it. She had seen the piles of bodies and the hollow eyes of the survivors. She was covered in the literal dust of a genocide.
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So when she got to Hitler’s apartment, she didn't just want a bath. She wanted to colonize his space.
Analyzing the Lee Miller Self Portrait in Hitler's Tub
If you look closely at the image—and I mean really look—it's staged with the precision of a Renaissance painting, yet it feels totally raw.
- The Boots: Look at the bathmat. It’s filthy. Those are Miller’s combat boots, still caked with the mud of Dachau. She’s tracked the evidence of Hitler’s crimes into his own pristine, middle-class sanctuary.
- The Portrait: There’s a framed photo of Hitler sitting on the edge of the tub. It’s almost like he’s forced to watch her. A woman. A "decadent" artist. Someone he would have despised, taking over his most private room.
- The Venus: On the small table next to her, there’s a classical statuette. It’s a bit of kitsch, really. It represents the "ideal" beauty the Nazis obsessed over, but here it looks small and pathetic next to the living, breathing, dirty reality of Miller.
Technically, Scherman snapped the shutter, but this is widely regarded as a Lee Miller self portrait because she directed every single inch of the frame. She chose the angle. She moved the props. She was the one who decided that "washing the dirt of Dachau off in his tub" was the only way to process the horror.
Beyond the Bathtub: The 1932 Self-Portrait
Before she was a soldier in a helmet, Miller was the "it girl" of the Surrealist movement. If you're looking for her more "artistic" self-portraits, you have to go back to New York in 1932.
After leaving her mentor and partner Man Ray in Paris, she moved back to the States and set up her own studio. There’s a famous shot from this era—Self-Portrait with headband. It’s elegant. It’s sleek. She looks like a Greco-Roman statue, but with a sharp, modern edge.
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It’s a far cry from the bathtub.
In the 1932 photo, she’s playing with the male gaze. She knew she was beautiful—she’d been a Vogue cover girl, after all—but she used that beauty like a tool. She wasn't just a muse for men like Man Ray or Picasso. She was her own subject. She and Man Ray actually "discovered" solarization (that ghostly, silver-outline effect) together, though for years he got all the credit.
Typical, right?
Why Does This Work Still Matter?
Basically, Lee Miller was doing things with a camera that women weren't "allowed" to do. She transitioned from being the object of the photo to the creator of it.
When we talk about a Lee Miller self portrait, we're talking about a woman reclaiming her own image. Whether she was posing as a fashion icon or sitting in the tub of a dead dictator, she was always in control of the narrative.
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Her son, Antony Penrose, didn't even know the extent of her work until after she died in 1977. He found thousands of negatives and prints tucked away in the attic of their farmhouse in Sussex. She never bragged about it. She just lived it.
Actionable Insights for Art Lovers and Photographers:
- Look for the "Awry" Angle: Miller’s style was influenced by Surrealism. She didn't like "perfect" shots. She liked things that felt slightly off, like a severed breast on a dinner plate (yes, she actually photographed that) or a shadow that looked like a ghost.
- Contextualize the Subject: If you're studying her work, don't just look at the aesthetics. Research the date. If it’s from 1944-1945, the story behind the lens is usually much darker than the image suggests.
- Visit the Archives: If you're ever in the UK, Farleys House (the Lee Miller Archives) is a pilgrimage site. Seeing the prints in person is a totally different experience than seeing them on a screen.
- Reclaim the Narrative: Use Miller's life as a blueprint for self-documentation. A self-portrait isn't just about what you look like; it's about where you are and what you've survived.
If you want to understand 20th-century art, you can't skip her. She wasn't just a witness to history; she made sure she was right in the middle of the frame, boots and all.
Check out the latest retrospective at the Tate Britain if you're in London this year—it's the most complete look at her career since the 2024 biopic Lee brought her story back into the mainstream. Seeing her war photography alongside her fashion work really drives home just how much of a shapeshifter she was.
Next Steps:
- Research Solarization: Look up the "Eléctricité" portfolio she did with Man Ray to see how they manipulated light.
- Read "The Lives of Lee Miller": Pick up the biography by Antony Penrose for the most intimate account of her life.
- Analyze the "Exploding Hand": Compare her early Surrealist street photography to her later wartime work to see how her "eye" evolved.