Lisa Fonssagrives didn’t begin modeling until 1936, when she traveled from Sweden to Paris for a ballet competition. In the French capital, the photographer Willy Maywald caught sight of her in an elevator and asked if she would model hats for him. The pictures landed on Vogue’s doorstep, and soon enough Horst P. Horst was testing her. At the time, she was married to the photographer Fernand Fonssagrives; she would continue to sit for him as well as for George Hoyningen-Huene, George Platt Lynes, and Erwin Blumenfeld, who photographed her hanging from the Eiffel Tower. Irving Penn became her second husband, in 1950, and the pair collaborated on his greatest photographs. This exhibition celebrates Fonssagrives, the 20th century’s first supermodel. —Elena Clavarino
The Arts Intel Report
Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn: Fashion Icon
Irving Penn, Lisa Fonssagrives, Hamlet Hairstyle, 1949.
When
Feb 28 – May 26, 2024
Where
Etc
Photo courtesy of the Tom Penn Archive/© Condé Nast
Nearby
1
Art
Palais Galliera