"The Angel", 1946
Signed Irving Penn and dated May 1979 and numbered 3/52 on verso. Stamped "Hand coated by the photographer" and "Photograph by Irving Penn, Copyright 1946 by The Condé Nast Publications Inc." on verso. Platinum Palladium mounted to aluminum, image 24.5 x 19.5 cm. Sheet 59.5 x 31 cm.
Camera Obscura, Stockholm. Acquired in 1980 by the current owner.
Nicholas Callaway, "Passage, a work record", 1991, illustrated on fullpage.
Sarah Greenough, "Irving Penn. Platinum Prints", 2005, illustrated on fullpage pl. 2.
Art Institute of Chicago and Colin Westerbeck, "Irving Penn: A Career in Photography", 2007, illustrated on pl. 76.
French wrestler Maurice Tillet, was a world heavyweight champion who in his twenties developed acromegaly. He moved to the United States and continued his wrestling as the ‘The French Angel’ drawing large crowds in the 1940s.
Another example of this image is in the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago.