Irving Penn - Photographs New York Wednesday, April 3, 2013 | Phillips

Photographs

3 April 2013
New York

  • Provenance

    Private Collection, Atlanta

  • Literature

    Art Institute of Chicago, Irving Penn: A Career in Photography, pl. 24
    Bulfinch Press, Irving Penn - A notebook at random, p. 103 there titled Mint Tea in a Moroccan Palace
    Hall-Duncan, The History of Fashion Photography, p. 146
    Knopf/Callaway, Irving Penn: Passage, p. 102
    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

    Irving Penn’s Woman in Palace, Marrakech, Morocco (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), 1951, is one of the most iconic images in the revered fashion photographer’s legacy. Taken a mere year after the nuptials between Penn and his muse, the image was originally published in Vogue in January of 1952 in an editorial titled “Moroccan Handbook.” By then, the statuesque Swedish-born Fonssagrives had cemented her status as one of the most successful models in the world, having become the first model to grace the cover of Time magazine in 1949. Moreover, notwithstanding two additional Vogue covers, this would be the last editorial shoot the famed beauty would do, marking her gracious exit from the fashion world. The image is also celebrated for being one of the very few outdoors that Penn would take in his entire illustrious career. Depicting his wife as an imagined, mysterious and seductive harem beauty within a lavish Orientalist setting, Penn’s image is as much an homage to his beloved wife as it is an embodiment of his own supremely elegant style.

  • 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

256

Irving Penn

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

1951
Selenium toned gelatin silver print, printed 1992.
15 1/2 x 15 1/4 in. (39.4 x 38.7 cm)
Signed, titled, dated, initialed, numbered 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
$100,000 - 150,000 

Sold for $122,500

Contact Specialist
Vanessa Kramer Hallett
Worldwide Head of Photographs
vhallett@phillips.com
+ 1 212 940 1245

Photographs

3 April 2013
New York