Lisa Fonssagrives
Swedish model (1911–1992)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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]
17 May 1911
- Supermodel
- dancer/dance teacher
- photographer
- sculptor[1]
Lisa Fonssagrives | |
|---|---|
Fonssagrives photographed by Toni Frissell, 1951 | |
| Born | Lisa Birgitta Bernstone 17 May 1911 Västra Götaland County, Sweden |
| Died | 4 February 1992 (aged 80) New York City, U.S. |
| Other name | Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn |
| Occupations |
|
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2, including Mia Fonssagrives-Solow |
| Modeling information | |
| Height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)[2] |
| Hair color | Blonde[3] |
Biography
Lisa Fonssagrives was born Lisa Birgitta Bernstone on 17 May 1911 in Sweden Uddevalla.[1][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.[1] 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.[1] She went on to become a sculptor in the 1960s and was represented by the Marlborough Gallery in Manhattan.[1]
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.[1]
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]
