Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, 80, Artist Who Gave Up Career as a Model
Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, a leading fashion model in the 1940's and 50's, died Tuesday at New York Hospital. She was 80 years old and lived in Huntington L.I.
She died of pneumonia, a family representative said.
An elegant blonde, the Swedish-born model posed for some of the most famous photographers of the age, including Horst P. Horst, George Hoyningen Huene and Irving Penn, whom she married in 1950. In the late 1940's, when most models were paid $10 to $25 an hour, she was earning $40 an hour. When most models's careers ended before their 30th birthdays, hers flourished until she was past 40.
She was a frequent subject of Penn's photographs for Vogue magazine, particularly his studies of French haute couture. Alexander Liberman, the editorial director of Conde Nast Publications, which publishes Vogue, said the Penns represented "an extraordinary relationship between a photographer and a model."
"She was the inspiration and subject of some of Penn's greatest photographs," Mr. Liberman said yesterday. "She epitomized a very noble period of fashion and couture. She gave a classical dignity to anything she wore." 'A Good Clothes Hanger'
Lisa Fonssagrives had a more down-to-earth attitude to her contributions as a model. She was quoted in a 1949 article in Time magazine as saying: "It is always the dress, it is never, never the girl. I'm just a good clothes hanger."