Lisette Model
Born 1901, Vienna, Austria
Died 1983, New York
Selected museum exhibitions: deCordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts (2016); Musée du Jeu de Paume, Paris (2010); Fotomuseum Winterthur, Zurich (2001); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2000); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (1992); International Center of Photography, New York (1991); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (1990); Museum Folkwang, Essen (1982); New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana (1981); Museum of Modern Art (1949); Art Institute of Chicago (1943); Photo League, New York (1941)
Selected honors: Medal of the City of Paris (1982); Creative Artists Public Service Program Award (1973); Guggenheim Fellowship (1965)
Selected public collections: Albertina, Vienna; George Eastman House, Rochester; Getty Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Centre Pompidou, Paris; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington; Tate, London
Born in Austria, Lisette Model immigrated to the United States in 1938. She quickly gained success for her photographs, publishing in magazines including Harper’s Bazaar and Look, and joining New York’s Photo League cooperative. An important teacher at the New School of Social Research, her best-known student was Diane Arbus. Model revolutionized street photography with her strikingly candid portraits, stating: “The camera is an instrument of detection. We photograph not only what we know, but also what we don’t know.” Representing an older woman who is elaborately and idiosyncratically dressed, other prints of this striking photograph are in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; and the Tate, London.