id: 172940
accession number: 2020.39
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2020.39
updated: 2023-04-23 11:16:04.487000
Woody Allen as Charlie Chaplin, New York, 1972, 1972. Irving Penn (American, 1917–2009). Palladium-platinum print; framed: 79.4 x 75 cm (31 1/4 x 29 1/2 in.); unframed: 50.8 x 50.8 cm (20 x 20 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift from the Collection of Mark Schwartz + Bettina Katz 2020.39 © 1972 by Condé Nast Publications, Inc.
title: Woody Allen as Charlie Chaplin, New York, 1972
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series in original language:
creation date: 1972
creation date earliest: 1972
creation date latest: 1972
current location:
creditline: Gift from the Collection of Mark Schwartz + Bettina Katz
copyright: © 1972 by Condé Nast Publications, Inc.
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culture: America, 20th century
technique: palladium-platinum print
department: Photography
collection: PH - American 1951-Present
type: Photograph
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catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* Irving Penn (American, 1917–2009) - artist
Irving Penn American, 1917- Irving Penn (born in Plainfield, New Jersey) is one of this country's best known fashion and advertising photographers. He studied at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, attending design classes taught by Alexey Brodovitch, the influential art director for Harper's Bazaar. After graduating in 1938, Penn worked as a graphic artist and designer in New York, then spent a year painting in Mexico. In 1943 he returned to New York and began designing photographic covers for Vogue. Soon he was photographing the covers himself, as well as producing fashion and still-life images for the magazine. He began making portraits for Vogue in 1946 and over the years photographed numerous celebrities. It was his revolutionary series of photographs of the 1950 Paris collections for Vogue, however, that brought Penn his first great success. Avoiding the usual elaborate settings, he placed his models instead in a bare studio against a plain backdrop, focusing great care on pose and gesture. About this time Penn also began a major personal project photographing nudes and experimenting with photographic printmaking. Since the early 1950s Penn has produced advertising photographs for American and international clients in addition to his Vogue assignments and the yearly photographic essays he began in 1961 for Look magazine (1961-67). Among his most recent personal photographs are platinum prints of animal skulls. Penn's work has been featured in one-person exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1961, 1975, 1984), the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (1963), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1977), and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1991), as well as in many group shows. He lives in New York. M.M.
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measurements: Framed: 79.4 x 75 cm (31 1/4 x 29 1/2 in.); Unframed: 50.8 x 50.8 cm (20 x 20 in.)
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inscriptions:
inscription: signed, #24/28
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Portraiture: American Photography 1960 to the Present
opening date: 2009-06-01T00:00:00
Portraiture: American Photography 1960 to the Present. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 1-September 13, 2009).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
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PROVENANCE
Mark Schwartz + Bettina Katz, Cleveland, OH
date:
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the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: March 2, 2020
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fun fact:
Woody Allen posed as Charlie Chaplin, Groucho Marx, and Harpo Marx as well as “playing” himself during this portrait session with Irving Penn.
digital description:
The portrait setting with comedian and filmmaker Woody Allen was commissioned for Vogue magazine and the results appeared in its pages in 1972. However, at this time Penn was beginning to think of his photographs as not just illustrations but as works of fine art. He began printing certain images using an historical technique of hand-sensitizing artist’s paper with a mixture of platinum and palladium, as in this print.
wall description:
Renowned portrait and fashion photographer Irving Penn often photographs famous artists and writers. In this comic portrait, Penn photographed film director, writer, and comedian Woody Allen dressed as Charlie Chaplin’s bumbling but good-hearted character the Little Tramp. Complete with a bowler hat and a mustache, Allen’s portrayal by Penn nearly fools the viewer. Penn’s portrait photography is unique for its ability to capture images of talented individuals familiar with play-acting in front of the camera.
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
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IMAGES