Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn. model. muse. rare beauty. wife. All linked to Irving Penn-her husband-who died
October 7, 2009 at the age of 92.
Fonssagrives by Penn
Photographer David Seidner said in the Lisa Fonssagrives book by Vendome Press- "It is difficult to imagine the history of fashion photography without thinking of Lisa Fonssagives-Penn." More than Penn, famous photographers of the day flocked to photograph the rare bird. She would always give them their best shot. Penn adored L. as evidenced in the countless iconic collaborative photographs the pair produced over their 40 years together.
David Seidner a photographer extraordinaire now gone as well-photographed LFP in the summer of 1990. He had taken friendly snaps of her-the two had developed a close friendship over the years-but Seidner was unprepared for his first look into the lens at LFP-the Model. He remembered being "dumbstruck and thrilled. Lisa Fonssagrives that magical, musical name conjuring countless images reappearing through my lens... She molded herself into that familiar vision of perfection."
"Lisa maintained a kind of Zen detachment from all the false importance of the fashionable. She was pure and good and marvelously old fashioned." DS
Fonssagrives in Rochas by Penn
The image of LFP in the Rochas mermaid dress is considered by Seidner to one of the two images defining post war zeitgeist. (The second- Richard Avedon's Dovima with the elephants.) Seidner called the Penns "collaborators in smuggling art onto the printed page."
LFP wrote to Seidner... do not mature, maturity is rot, I don't believe in it, and too much thinking is harmful to your artistic health. One can't throw in the towel, that would be living death. It is here, in our private work we must stand, naked in honesty, in front of that tyrannical god, who is our soul- our heads bowed-reaching for that higher innocence required for the guest of art. LFP
Lisa Bernstone Fonssagrives-Penn May 17, 1911 – February 4, 1992
David Seidner February 19,1957- June 6,1999
Irving Penn June 16, 1917 – October 7, 2009
David Seidner February 19,1957- June 6,1999
Irving Penn June 16, 1917 – October 7, 2009
