Irving Penn

mounted, signed, titled, dated, and annotated in ink and stamped on the reverse, 1949, one in an edition of no more than 19

Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, 1994

'Vogue's Eye View of 90 Summer Days,' Vogue, June 1950, p. 46

Irving Penn, Moments Preserved (New York, 1960), p. 125

Irving Penn, Passage (New York, 1991), p. 78

Polly Devlin, Vogue Book of Fashion Photography, 1919-1979 (New York, 1979), p. 111

This print is in generally excellent condition. In raking light, a handling crease is visible in the upper right quadrant, and a small scratch that does not appear to break the emulsion is visible near the lower left corner. These likely occurred prior to mounting.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This image was first published in the June 1950 issue of American Vogue, as an illustration for the feature article, ‘Vogue’s Eye View of 90 Summer Days.’  The caption for the photograph begins,

‘Caught, like a fish, by the sharp metallic hook of a telephone bell, the lady is pulled up from the depths of summer sleep.  On the line which dredges her up to the bright surface of a June morning might be . . . ’  

With its wonderful disarray of bed linens, the photograph offered here illustrates Penn’s ability to incorporate a calibrated level of disorder in his compositions. While the fashion photography of the day usually favored a more idealized view of its subjects, Penn distinguished himself by including less-than-perfect elements in his work: the grit of a spent match, a deliberately scratched negative, or the visible edge of a paper backdrop. In the present image, the apparently random jumble of the sheets—wrinkled, pulled taut here, bunched-up there—are beautifully modeled by Penn’s precise handling of the light and rendered with clarity and subtlety. The whole is stamped with Penn’s unmistakable alchemy in which disorder is transformed into elegance.   

The woman in the photograph is Jean Patchett (1926-2002), one of the most photographed models of the late 1940s and 1950s.   A small-town girl from Maryland’s Eastern Shore, she joined the Ford Model Agency in 1947.  Patchett worked with many of the innovative fashion photographers of the day, including not only Penn, but also Cecil Beaton, Erwin Blumenfeld, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Horst, and John Rawlings.  She was featured on more than 40 magazine covers for Vogue, Glamour, and Harper’s Bazaar.  A mole just above her right eye was her trademark.  Patchett's sessions with Irving Penn resulted in some of his most remembered fashion photographs, especially the Black-and-White Vogue Cover, also from 1950.