Irving Penn - Photographs New York Tuesday, April 4, 2023 | Phillips

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  • This impressive, oversized print of Cuzco Children, which predates the edition for the image, was given by Irving Penn to Nancy Ann Reals Perl Benderoth (1933-2018) who worked as a stylist for the photographer. Benderoth, a painter and designer, attended Cooper Union and the Art Student League and led a multifaceted creative career spanning the photographic, advertising, theatre, and film industries. During the 1950s, Benderoth married the playwright and producer Arnold Perl after the pair met while working on a stage production of Perl’s Sholem Aleicheim. The Perls spent their time between East Hampton and Manhattan. At the time of Mr. Perl's death in 1971, he had been collaborating with James Baldwin on the documentary, Malcolm X. She took over the project as a producer, working with editor Mick Benderoth, and in 1972 the film was nominated for an Academy Award. Years later, in 1990, Ms. Perl and Mr. Benderoth wed after forming a production company.

    • Provenance

      Gift of the photographer to Nancy Ann Reals Perl Benderoth, 1960s
      By descent to the present owner

    • Literature

      Art Institute of Chicago, Irving Penn: A Career in Photography, pl. 37
      Knopf, Irving Penn: Passage, p. 61 there titled Brother and Sister, Cuzco
      Penn, Worlds in a Small Room, p. 13
      Szarkowski, Irving Penn, pl. 59 there titled Mountain Children, Cuzco

    • 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

277

Cuzco Children

1948
Gelatin silver print, printed 1960s.
23 1/8 x 24 6/8 in. (58.7 x 62.9 cm)
Signed, dated, and annotated 'photographed Cuzco' in ink on the mount; typed copyright credit reproduction limitation label affixed to the reverse of the mount.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$60,000 - 80,000 

Sold for $95,250

Contact Specialist

Sarah Krueger
Head of Department, Photographs
skrueger@phillips.com


Vanessa Hallett
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Chairwoman, Americas
vhallett@phillips.com

Photographs

New York Auction 4 April 2023