Irving Penn

Irving Penn worked for Vogue Magazine for 66 years. He created his first cover in August 1943 and his last in August 2009, the year of his death. Over these years, he created a total of 165 cover images, more than any other photographer ever.

Penn’s first pictures for Vogue were still lives of bags and gloves. Alexander Liberman, Vogue’s Art Director, recognised Penn’s skill and commissioned him to take fashion photographs of live models instead. One of his earliest assignments was a photo shoot for the article “12 Beauties” in 1947 in which Vogue brought together twelve of America’s most popular and most photographed models for a group portrait. This was where Irving Penn met his future wife, the Swedish supermodel Lisa Fonssagrives. Penn raised fashion photography to an art form in its own right, and over the years created unforgettable images that exude elegance and playfulness. He always treated the garments and its designers with respect and was precise about highlighting the cut and the material.

The photograph in the auction, “Fashion Photograph (Nina Devoe), New York, 1951”, graced the cover of Vogue in May 1951 in a colour version depicting the model Nina Devoe against a beige background wearing a sleeveless khaki dress, with red lips, light-blue eyeshadow and a yellow coat over her arm. The issue contained “Fashion for ’local events all across America” as well as travel guides to Canada, Spain, London and Paris.

Nina Devoe was a popular model in the 1950s and she appeared on the cover of Vogue several times, in pictures by photographers such as Erwin Blumenfeldt.