This charming yet bold photograph was the lead image for the fashion story ‘Flying down to Lima’, published in Vogue in 1949, comprising a number of vignettes enacted by a 22-year-old Jean Patchett under the direction of the photographer, Irving Penn. For this editorial, Penn abandoned his usual studio setting to shoot exclusively on site, using the Peruvian capital as his backdrop. Taken at the end of a long first day in the Callao district, it shows Patchett’s white-gloved hand, delicately massaging her tired, aching foot. Penn’s daring cropping, camera angle and composition draw the viewer’s eye to the fashion elements in the foreground – first the handbag then down to the ground for the shoes – while the street scene in the background brings texture and diversion to this remarkable image.
Irving Penn’s Sore Foot in Vogue, 15 February 1949. Credit: Condé Nast
Provenance
Pace/MacGill, New York
Literature
‘Flying Down to Lima’, Vogue US, 15 February 1949, pp. 60-61 Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty, New Haven: Yale U., 2015, pl. 62, p. 101
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.
1948 Selenium toned gelatin silver print, printed 1985. 40.7 x 38.8 cm (16 x 15 1/4 in.) Signed, titled, dated, annotated in ink, credit, copyright credit, reproduction limitation and edition stamps on the reverse of the mount. One from an edition of 6.