Lisa Fonssagrives Penn in Morocco

This portrait of Lisa Fonssagrives Penn is one of my favorites. Taken in Morocco, 1951 by her husband Irving Penn, the actual print recently sold for over $300,000 by Christie’s auction house.

Lisa Fonssagrives Penn

It was in the mid-nineties, thumbing through an Irving Penn book entitled Pasage, when I first discovered the classic beauty of Lisa F. I was captivated to say the least, and was on a mission to find more images of her. The next year,my wish was granted in the form of a thorough coffetable book, celebrating her life as a model, artist, sculptor, dancer, photographer, clothing designer,athlete,pilot,wife and mother. A Real Supermodel. The book is now out of print and fetching up to $300.00-worth every cent. Five Stars *****

Lisa Fonssagrives: Three Decades of Classic Fashion Photography (Hardcover)
by David Seidner (Editor), Martin Harrison (Author)
Lisa Fonssagrives (May 17, 1911 – February 4, 1992), credited by some as the first "supermodel."
Her image appeared on the cover of many magazines during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, from Town & Country, Life, and the original Vanity Fair.
She worked with fashion photographers including George Hoyningen-Huene, Man Ray, Horst, Erwin Blumenfeld, George Platt Lynes, Richard Avedon, and Edgar de Evia. She married photographer, Irving Penn, in 1950.
She was the inspiration and subject of some of Penn's greatest photographs, particularly his studies of French haute couture.


Lisa Fonssagrives opera glove gallery:

http://www.operagloves.com/Classicstars/LisaFonssagrives/lisa.html