Irving Penn
Schiaparelli Jacket with Tinsel and Glass
1974
Platinum-palladium print. 49.9 x.46.5 cm (63.2 x 56 cm). Flush-mounted to aluminum plate, this with paper coating on the reverse. Signed, dated, titled and detailed notes on the edition in pencil, copyright and edition stamps, therein editioned in pencil, as well as stamped 'Deacified' and 'Hand-coated by the photographer' on the reverse of the mount. Print 15 from an edition of 25. - Matted and framed.
Irving Penn was inspired to a photo series by the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York - curated in 1973 by fashion icon Diana Vreeland - about the fashion avant-garde of the ten, twenties and thirties. The photographer was particularly taken with the creations of the Italian-French fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli with their surrealistic details. In an improvised studio in the rooms of the museum - with the cloudy neutral background characteristic of his works - Penn created mysterious object photographs, reminiscent of portrait studies, using the original garments and figurines. In this case, the humanoid model wears a creation from 1929, consisting of a flamboyant jacket, embroidered with gold tinsel and mirror glass in the rococo style.
Provenance
Marlbrough Gallery, London, prinate collection, Poland
Literature
Inventive Paris Clothes 1909-1939. A Photographic Essay by Irving Penn, London 1977, ill. p. 85