241
Irving Penn
Butchers, Paris
- Estimate
- $40,000 - 60,000
Lot Details
Platinum palladium print, printed 1976.
1950
16 1/4 x 12 1/2 in. (41.3 x 31.8 cm)
Signed, titled 'Bouchers', dated, initialed, numbered 15/33 and annotated in pencil, Condé Nast copyright credit and edition stamps on the verso.
Specialist
Full-Cataloguing
Catalogue Essay
A true legend, Irving Penn transformed twentieth-century studio photography. Working across numerous photographic processes, diverse cultures, and distinctive subjects, each and every photograph by Penn is rendered with elegant simplicity and supreme beauty. We are delighted this season to offer an exciting selection of works by Irving Penn that pay homage to his brilliance, range, and unwavering vision. Featuring Small Trades, Vogue editorials, still-lifes, and arresting portraits, this selection spans just over 50 years of Penn’s career and includes photographs taken in New York, Paris, Cannes, Morocco, and New Guinea. Masterfully employing several photographic mediums throughout his lifetime, Penn was an exquisite printmaker, a fact reflected in the diversity of mediums on offer here, including; platinum palladium, gelatin silver, dye destruction, and Fujicolor Crystal Archive.
The present lot, Butchers, Paris, 1950 comes from Penn’s iconic Small Trades series, a collection of striking studio portraits taken in Paris, London, and New York featuring tradespeople in their working clothes. According to Penn, Alexander Liberman, the art director at Vogue who first hired Penn in 1943, “inspired me with the idea of doing a series of pictures of the small trades in the tradition of the ‘Petits Métiers’ of Paris past… A steady stream of workmen, street vendors, and fringe Parisians climbed the six flights to the studio, where they waited their turn to pose between pictures of couture and portrait sittings of the distinguished.” Through his sensitive eye and exquisite execution, Penn’s socially and economically disparate subjects are rendered as aesthetic equals in front of the artist’s signature backdrop.
For additional works by Irving Penn, see lots 298, 311-314, 317, 350, and 351.
The present lot, Butchers, Paris, 1950 comes from Penn’s iconic Small Trades series, a collection of striking studio portraits taken in Paris, London, and New York featuring tradespeople in their working clothes. According to Penn, Alexander Liberman, the art director at Vogue who first hired Penn in 1943, “inspired me with the idea of doing a series of pictures of the small trades in the tradition of the ‘Petits Métiers’ of Paris past… A steady stream of workmen, street vendors, and fringe Parisians climbed the six flights to the studio, where they waited their turn to pose between pictures of couture and portrait sittings of the distinguished.” Through his sensitive eye and exquisite execution, Penn’s socially and economically disparate subjects are rendered as aesthetic equals in front of the artist’s signature backdrop.
For additional works by Irving Penn, see lots 298, 311-314, 317, 350, and 351.
Provenance
Literature
Irving Penn
American | B. 1917 D. 2009Irving Penn was one of the 20th century’s most significant photographers, known for his arresting images, technical mastery, and quiet intensity. Though he gained widespread acclaim as a leading Vogue photographer for over sixty years, Penn remained a private figure devoted to his craft. Trained under legendary art director Alexey Brodovitch in Philadelphia, he began his career assisting at Harper’s Bazaar before joining Vogue in 1943, where editor and artist Alexander Liberman recognized Penn’s distinctive eye and encouraged him to pursue photography. Penn’s incomparably elegant fashion studies reset the standard for the magazine world, and his portraits, still lifes, and nude studies broke new ground. His 1960 book Moments Preserved redefined the photographic monograph with its dynamic layout and high-quality reproductions. In 1964, Penn began printing in platinum and palladium, reviving this 19th-century process to serve his own distinct vision. An innovator in every sense, Penn’s approach to photography was endlessly adventurous. Few photographers of his generation experimented as widely with both conventional and historic print processes, and none achieved Penn’s level of excellence in all.
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