Provenance
Private Collection, Europe
Literature
The Art Institute of Chicago, Irving Penn: A Career in Photography, p. 114
Greenough, Irving Penn: Platinum Prints, p. 37
Penn, Moments Preserved, p. 39
Taschen, 20th Century Photography, p. 483
Catalogue Essay

From early on in his career, Irving Penn adhered to the principles underlying the medium of photography, especially with close attention to clarity, illumination, and linearity. As early as 1947, Penn began repudiating the pictorialist-inspired modes in photography—be it fashion or portraiture—by stripping away lavish interiors and contrived narratives. By doing so, Penn enabled the clothes and the sitters to assume the central role of his images. Of this, John Szarkowski had remarked, “[Penn’s photographs] are not stories, but simply pictures.” Penn rejected the notion that portraits ought to be set within a context that readily identified the sitters—writers at their desk; singers by a microphone; thespians on stage; or artists at their studio—and layer by layer, removed the common traps that detracted from the point of focus. In fact, it was Penn’s studio—not a lavish mansion, or a Louis XV boudoir, or a Victorian library—that became the sole space within which sitters were captured under his lens.

From the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, Penn continuously simplified his portraits, gradually removing the architectural corners he had been using to photograph such notables as Alfred Hitchock and Marlene Dietrich. By 1957, the year the present lot, Picasso (B), Cannes, was taken, Penn had removed not only any gratuitous props but also any bodily references or gestures that could have compromised the unique individuality of the famed Spanish artist, by then already one of the art world’s leading figures. The close-up portrait is skillfully and almost perfectly centered by Picasso’s cyclopean eye, paying homage to the Cubist style that he was instrumental in popularizing with Georges Braque. References to the Modernist style, in fact, abound in the photograph: the strong tonal contrasts, the robe framing the jawline, the cropping of the ear, the different lines dissecting the plain. Indeed, the portrait is far more akin to Picasso’s gris-toned Buste de Femme, 1956, than any of Penn’s other portraits. In that regard, the image is more likely how Penn imagined Picasso would envision himself. Ultimately, Picasso (B), Cannes, is a carefully nuanced composition commemorating the legacy of not one, but two great masters, each delicately revealing his undeniable skill and style on different sides of the same lens.
Artist Biography
Irving Penn
American • 1917 - 2009
Arresting portraits, exquisite flowers, luscious food and glamorous models populate Irving Penn's meticulously rendered, masterful prints. Penn employed the elegant simplicity of a gray or white backdrop to pose his subjects, be it a model in the latest Parisian fashion, a famous subject or veiled women in Morocco.
Irving Penn's distinct aesthetic transformed twentieth-century elegance and style, with each brilliant composition beautifully articulating his subjects. Working across several photographic mediums, Penn was a master printmaker. Regardless of the subject, each and every piece is rendered with supreme beauty.
View More Works

11

Irving Penn

Picasso (B), Cannes

1957
Selenium toned gelatin silver print, printed 1984.
16 x 15 1/8 in. (40.6 x 38.4 cm)
Signed, titled, dated, initialed in ink, Condé Nast copyright credit (courtesy Vogue) reproduction limitation, credit and edition stamps on the reverse of the mount. One from an edition of 21.

Estimate
$60,000 - 80,000

Sold for $100,000

Contact Specialist
Vanessa Kramer Hallett
Worldwide Head, Photographs

Shlomi Rabi
Head of Sale, New York

General Enquiries:
+1 212 940 1245

Photographs Evening Sale

New York 1 April 2015 6pm

1
Lewis Wickes Hine
Team Work, Empire State Building, New York City
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $16,250
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2
Tina Modotti
Sugar Cane
Estimate $70,000 - 90,000
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3
Alfred Stieglitz
The Steerage
Estimate $180,000 - 220,000
Sold for $197,000
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4
Richard Avedon
The Family
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $233,000
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5
Richard Avedon
Robert Frank, photographer, Mabou Mines, Nova Scotia, July 17
Estimate $30,000 - 40,000
Sold for $52,500
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6
Irving Penn
Frozen Foods, New York
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $106,250
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7
Irving Penn
Black and White Fashion with Handbag (Jean Patchett) (C), New York
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $106,250
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8
Helmut Newton
Walking Women, Paris
Estimate $700,000 - 900,000
Sold for $905,000
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9
František Drtikol
Nude
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $106,250
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10
Man Ray
Reclining Nude with Satin Sheet
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $329,000
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11
Irving Penn
Picasso (B), Cannes
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $100,000
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12
Sharon Core
Candy Counter 1969
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $52,500
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13
John Baldessari
Green Sunset (with Trouble)
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $365,000
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14
Cindy Sherman
Untitled #103
Estimate $90,000 - 120,000
Sold for $118,750
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15
Thomas Ruff
Sterne 23h 39m/-55°
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $112,500
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16
Thomas Struth
Paradise 26 (Bougainville), Palpa, Peru
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
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17
Adam Fuss
Untitled
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18
Hiroshi Sugimoto
Lake Superior, Cascade River
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19
Desirée Dolron
Xteriors XII
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Sold for $125,000
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20
Diane Arbus
A widow in her bedroom on 55th St., NYC
Estimate $200,000 - 250,000
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21
Katy Grannan
Anonymous, Los Angeles
Estimate $15,000 - 25,000
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22
Nobuyoshi Araki
A/FILM 6 X 7
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23
Pierre et Gilles
Les amoureaux/ Johan et Léo
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24
Robert Mapplethorpe
Flag
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Sold for $87,500
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25
Wolfgang Tillmans
Torino Installation
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26
Robin Rhode
Ballad to Ballet
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27
Zhang Huan
Family Tree
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Photographs Evening Sale

New York 1 April 2015 6pm

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Provenance

Literature

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Irving Penn

11

Irving Penn

Picasso (B), Cannes

Photographs Evening Sale

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