“All my first models, Dorian Leigh, Elise Daniels, Carmen, Marella Agnelli, Audrey Hepburn, were brunettes and had fine noses, long throats, oval faces. They were all memories of my sister. My sense of what was beautiful was established very early through the way in which I experienced her.”
RICHARD AVEDON

Richard Avedon’s ethereal portrait of the aristocratic wife of late Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli first appeared in the April 1954 issue of Harper’s Bazaar in a story entitled ‘Beauties of Our Time’. The young Avedon worked with Bazaar’s infuential art director Alexey Brodovitch who allowed his image to be fopped for publication with the portrait reproduced full-bleed on the lef-hand page and the text at right, mirroring the sinuous curves of Agnelli’s head and body which Avedon had elongated manually in the dark room. Agnelli was one of writer Truman Capote’s famous ‘swans’ – well-married, international, best-dressed ladies who also included Mrs. William S. (‘Babe’) Paley and Mrs. Winston (‘CZ’) Guest.