Lisa Fonssagrives | |
|---|---|
 Fonssagrives photographed byToni Frissell, 1951 | |
| Born | Lisa Birgitta Bernstone (1911-05-17)17 May 1911 Västra Götaland County, Sweden |
| Died | 4 February 1992(1992-02-04) (aged 80) New York City, U.S. |
| Other names | Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn |
| Occupations |
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| Spouses | |
| Children | 2, includingMia Fonssagrives-Solow |
| Modeling information | |
| Height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)[1] |
| Hair color | Blonde[2] |
Lisa Fonssagrives (bornLisa 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 firstsupermodel.[5][6][7]
Lisa Fonssagrives was born Lisa Birgitta Bernstone on 17 May 1911 inSwedenUddevalla.[3][4] As a child, she took uppainting,sculpting anddancing. She went toMary Wigman's school inBerlin and studied art and dance. After returning to Sweden, she opened a dance school.[8] She moved from Sweden toParis to train for ballet (after participating with choreographer Astrid Malmborg in an international competition) and worked as a private dance teacher withFernand 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 toVogue, and the photographerHorst P. Horst took some test photographs of her.[5][8] In July 1939, she appeared in the German illustrated weeklyDer Stern and was photographed also byAndré 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] includingTown & Country,Life,Time,Vogue, and the originalVanity 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, includingGeorge Hoyningen-Huene,Man Ray,Erwin Blumenfeld,George Platt Lynes,Richard Avedon, andEdgar de Evia. She married Parisian photographerFernand Fonssagrives in 1935; they divorced in 1949.[15] She married American photographerIrving Penn in 1950 and became his muse.[7][16]
After her modeling career ended, she designed aleisurewear clothing line forLord & Taylor.[3] She went on to become asculptor in the 1960s and was represented by the Marlborough Gallery inManhattan.[3]
Fonssagrives died, aged 80, in New York, survived by her second husband, Irving Penn, and her two children: her daughterMia Fonssagrives-Solow, a fashion and jewelry designer and sculptor who was married to real estate developer and art collectorSheldon 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 atModerna Museet in Stockholm. Irving Penn donated photographs to the museum in her memory.[18]
TheElton John photography collection auction, held byChristie's on 15 October 2004, sold a 1950 Irving Penn photograph of Fonssagrives for $57,360.[19]
the iconic first super-model, Lisa Fonssagrives
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)...Lisa Fonssagrives, who in retrospect surely qualifies as the first supermodel.
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