Marella Agnelli, New York Studio, December 1953

Details

RICHARD AVEDON (1923-2004)
Marella Agnelli, New York Studio, December 1953
gelatin silver print, mounted on linen, printed 1981
signed, numbered '35/50' in ink, copyright credit reproduction limitation, title, date and edition stamps (on the reverse of the mount)
23 3/8 x 18 5/8in. (59.5 x 47.3cm.)

Provenance

Acquired directly from the artist

Literature

Avedon and Capote, Observations, Simon and Schuster, 1959, p. 27;
Avedon and Brodkey, Avedon Photographs 1947-1877, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1978, cover and p. 161.

Lot Essay

'...a swan is invariably the result of adherence to some aesthetic system of thought, a code transposed into a self-portrait. This is why certain women, while not truly beautiful, can occasionally provide the swan illusion: their inner vision of themselves is so fixed, decorated with such clever outer artifice, that we surrender to their claim...classic specimen...Mme. Agnelli [is] the European swan numero uno.' Truman Capote (Observations, p. 29)

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