Lisa Fonssagrives

Lisa Fonssagrives
Lisa Fonssagrives
Born	Lisa Birgitta Bernstone; 17 May 1911; Västra Götaland County, Sweden
Died	4 February 1992 (aged 80); New York City, U.S.
Other names	Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn
Occupations	Supermodel; dancer/dance teacher; photographer; sculptor;
Spouses	Fernand Fonssagrives (m. 1935; div. 1949); Irving Penn; (m. 1950);
Children	2, including Mia Fonssagrives-Solow
	Modeling information
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Hair color	Blonde

Lisa Fonssagrives (born Lisa Birgitta Bernstone;^[4] 17 May 1911 – 4 February 1992), was a Swedish model, dancer, sculptor, and photographer. She is widely credited with having been the first supermodel.^[5]^[6]^[7]

Biography

Lisa Fonssagrives was born Lisa Birgitta Bernstone on 17 May 1911, in Sweden Uddevalla^[3]) and raised in Uddevalla.^[4] As a child, she took up painting, sculpting and dancing. She went to Mary Wigman's school in Berlin and studied art and dance. After returning to Sweden, she opened a dance school.^[8] She moved from Sweden to Paris to train for ballet (after participating with choreographer Astrid Malmborg in an international competition) and worked as a private dance teacher with Fernand Fonssagrives,^[8] which then led to a modeling career.^[3] She would say that modeling was "still dancing".^[9]

While in Paris in 1936, the photographer Willy Maywald saw her in an elevator and asked her to model hats for him.^[8] The photographs were then sent to Vogue, and the photographer Horst P. Horst took some test photographs of her.^[5]^[8] In July 1939, she appeared in the German illustrated weekly Der Stern and was photographed also by André Steiner.^[10]

Before Fonssagrives came to the United States in 1939, she was already a top model.^[11] Her image appeared on the cover of many magazines during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s,^[12]^[9] including Town & Country, Life, Time, Vogue, and the original Vanity Fair. She was reported to be "the highest paid, highest praised, high fashion model in the business".^[12]^[13]^[14] Fonssagrives once described herself as a "good clothes hanger".^[5]

Fonssagrives worked with many noted fashion photographers, including George Hoyningen-Huene, Man Ray, Erwin Blumenfeld, George Platt Lynes, Richard Avedon, and Edgar de Evia. She married Parisian photographer Fernand Fonssagrives in 1935; they divorced in 1949.^[15] She married American photographer Irving Penn in 1950 and became his muse.^[7]^[16]

After her modeling career ended, she designed a leisurewear clothing line for Lord & Taylor.^[3] She went on to become a sculptor in the 1960s and was represented by the Marlborough Gallery in Manhattan.^[3]

Fonssagrives died, aged 80, in New York, survived by her second husband, Irving Penn, and her two children: her daughter Mia Fonssagrives-Solow, a fashion and jewelry designer and sculptor who was married to real estate developer and art collector Sheldon Solow, and her son, Tom Penn, a designer.^[3]

The Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn Trust was founded in 1994.^[17]

In 1995, a retrospective exhibition of her work was held at Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Irving Penn donated photographs to the museum in her memory.^[18]

The Elton John photography collection auction, held by Christie's on 15 October 2004, sold a 1950 Irving Penn photograph of Fonssagrives for $57,360.^[19]

References

^ "ADVERTISING: Billion-Dollar Baby". Time. 19 September 1949. p. 6. Archived from the original on 17 June 2008.
^ "ADVERTISING: Billion-Dollar Baby". Time. 19 September 1949. p. 5. Archived from the original on 2 June 2007.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Anne-Marie Schiro (6 February 1992). "Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, 80, Artist Who Gave Up Career as a Model". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 March 2008.
^ ^a ^b Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn; Nicholas Callaway; Alexander Liberman; Alexandra Arrowsmith (1994). Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn: sculpture, prints and drawings.
^ ^a ^b ^c Rosemary Ranck (9 February 1997). "The First Supermodel". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 September 2006.
^ Alexander, Hilary (30 June 2008). "The thigh's the limit at Christian Dior". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 17 March 2009. the iconic first super-model, Lisa Fonssagrives
^ ^a ^b Laneri, Raquel (17 April 2017). "The world's first supermodel was more than 'just a clothes-hanger'". Retrieved 9 April 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Seidner, David (Spring 1985). "Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn". Bomb Magazine. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013.
^ ^a ^b Crystal Renn & Marjorie Ingall (8 September 2009). Hungry: A Young Model's Story of Appetite, Ambition and the Ultimate Embrace. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4391-0123-0.
^ Warren, Lynne (2005). Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography, 3-Volume Set. Lynn Warren. London. p. 1490. ISBN 978-0-203-94338-0. OCLC 1048820737.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ "Noted Model Designs Late Late Wear". Life. 18 November 1957.
^ ^a ^b Wyllie, Alice (10 January 2008). "An enduring model". The Scotsman. Edinburgh.
^ "ADVERTISING: Billion-Dollar Baby". Time. 19 September 1949. Archived from the original on 17 June 2008.
^ Robertson, Nan (25 May 1956). "Model Life: Mannequin Turns Fashion Creator; Lisa Fonssagrives Uses Tricks She Learned On Runway to Develop Convertible Styles(subscription required)". The New York Times.
^ Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn: Sculpture, Prints and Drawings (exhibition catalogue), Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn Trust, 1994. p. 19.
^ Brubach, Holly (8 February 1998). "Style; A State of Grace". The New York Times. ...Lisa Fonssagrives, who in retrospect surely qualifies as the first supermodel.
^ "The Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn Trust | Fifth Ave New York, NY | Cause IQ". www.causeiq.com. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
^ "Press release". www.modernamuseet.se. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
^ Elton John photo collection nets $900,000 USA Today. 15 October 2004.

Bibliography

Fonssagrives, Fernand; Muir, Robin (essay), Fernand Fonssagrives; An Eye for Beauty, London: Guiding Light, 2003.
Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn: Bronzes (exhibition catalogue), New York: Marlborough Gallery, Inc., 1983.
Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn: Sculpture, Prints and Drawings (exhibition catalogue), Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn Trust, 1994.
Gross, Michael: Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women, New York: W. Morrow, 1995, ISBN 0-688-12659-6
Seidner, David (ed): Lisa Fonssagrives: Three Decades of Classic Fashion Photography, New York: Vendome Press, 1996, ISBN 0-86565-978-8