Irving Penn - Photographs New York Saturday, April 9, 2011 | Phillips

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  • Literature

    Art Institute of Chicago, Irving Penn: A Career in Photography, pl. 24; Hall-Duncan, The History of Fashion Photography, p. 146; Smithsonian Institute, Irving Penn: Master Images, p. 42; Thames & Hudson, Lisa Fonssagrives: Three Decades of Classic Fashion Photography, p.10; American Vogue, January 1952, pp. 132-133

  • Catalogue Essay

    Unequivocally among the pillars of fashion photography, Irving Penn’s Woman in Moroccan Palace is a testament to a legacy that far exceeds the sum of its parts. Take in 1951 for Vogue, the publication for whom Penn had been working since 1943 under Alexander Liberman’s mentorship, the photograph was initially published in an article titled ‘Moroccan Handbook,’ which ran in the January 1952 issue. By then, the Swedish-born Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn’s popularity was at it’s height, having become the first model to grace the cover of Time magazine in 1949. The photograph is among the very last Irving Penn would take outdoors, and aside from two additional Vogue covers, it was the last time a photograph of Lisa was taken for editorial. Irving Penn suffused the strengths of Modernist sensitivity—crisp lines, impeccable clarity, and rich tonality—with the sumptuous adoration of the subjects in Orientalist painting to pay homage to the woman whom he loved and the genre that he all but revolutionized.

  • 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

48

Woman in Palace (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), Marrakech, Morocco

1951
Selenium-toned gelatin silver print, printed 1992.
15 3/8 x 15 1/4 in. (39.1 x 38.7 cm).
Signed, initialed, titled, dated in ink, Condé Nast copyright credit reproduction limitation, credit and edition stamps on the reverse of the mount. One from an edition of 40.

Estimate
$80,000 - 120,000 

Sold for $112,900

Photographs

9 April 2011
New York