Regarded by many as the world's first supermodel, Swedish Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn was a woman whose many talents extended beyond her much-photographed beauty. On the 30th anniversary of her death, we look at the life and legacy of a true fashion icon
Born Lisa Birgitta Bernstone in Sweden in 1911, Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn’s artistic streak was already apparent in her childhood. Raised in Uddevalla, on the west coast of Sweden, she began expressing herself through dance, painting and sculpture at a young age. Her talent and passion led her to move to Berlin at 20, to study dance with Mary Wigman, a pioneer of expressionist modern dance.
A few years later in Paris - where she had moved to join a dance company - Lisa met her first husband, fellow dancer Fernand Fonssagrives. After an accident ended his dancing prospects, Lisa gave him a camera, a move that propelled their careers into new realms respectively. While Fonssagrives’ photographer path was greatly inspired by his wife’s sculptural shapeshifting abilities on camera, Lisa’s modelling promise was discovered by Vogue, and she quickly became a recognisable face across many publications.
Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, the world's first supermodel. Photo: Irving Penn / Condé Nast Publications
As World War II broke out, the couple emigrated to America, where Lisa established her prominence in the modelling world. Her innate dancer’s understanding of how to control her body’s shapes imbued her presence in front of the camera with poise, artistry and grace. Her corporeal awareness was a welcome addition to the creation of an image, as witnessed in a daring shoot she did with Erwin Blumenfeld, which saw her precariously posed on the Eiffel Tower.
Beyond this natural talent that made her a standout among her peers, her impact could also be seen through the completeness of her contribution to an image. On most shoots, she was her own stylist and makeup artist, powdering her razor-sharp cheekbones and elongating her cat eyes with wing-tipped eyeliner that elegantly matched the high arch of her eyebrows. She further influenced the framing of her own image by using her knowledge of photography to discuss lighting and composition with photographers, all to deliver the perfect shot. Unsurprisingly, she referred to her own modelling work as “still dance”.
Model Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn wearing a black dress with a white scarf, gloves, wide-brimmed hat, and belt, holding umbrella. Photo: Irving Penn / The Condé Nast Publications
Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn wearing a mantel coat by Balenciaga. Photo: Irving Penn / The Condé Nast Publications
In 1947, at a photoshoot for American Vogue, photographer Irving Penn placed Lisa - with her swan-like profile - at the centre in his portrait '12 Beauties', which captured the most successful models of the day.
But it would take two more years before a haute couture photoshoot in Paris resulted not only in some iconic images, but in the pair recognising that they had met their artistic and romantic match in one another. The two were married in 1950, beginning a lengthy partnership both on and off camera.
Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn lying in a field of grass, reading Gertrude Stein's "Picasso" book, with a dog resting on her side. Photo: Irving Penn / The Condé Nast Publications
Though Fonssagrives-Penn humbly described herself as a “good clothes hanger”, her supermodel status was cemented in September 1949 when she became the first model to appear on the cover of TIME magazine, alongside the title “Billion Dollar Baby” - a reference to her ability to shift the monetary outpouring of the American woman’s pocketbook. In the article, she was celebrated as “the highest-paid, highest-praised high-fashion model in the business, considered by many of her colleagues the greatest fashion model of all time.”
In addition to the iconic photographs which she created with her respective husbands, she collaborated with photography stalwarts such as Man Ray, Horst P. Horst, Richard Avedon, Louise Dahl-Wolfe and Norman Parkinson, and her features flooded every magazine around. Her relationship with Vogue was particularly strong: she graced the magazine’s cover 11 times between 1940 and 1952 and appeared in the pages of the America edition countless times.
Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn wearing turban and robe in Moroccan interior. Photo: Irving Penn / The Condé Nast Publications
Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn modeling black feathered sheath hat and collarless tweed jacket. Photo: Horst P. Horst / The Condé Nast Publications
From the late 1950s onwards, Fonssagrives-Penn reduced her modelling and turned her attention to creating art in other forms. Not limiting herself to one medium, she expressed herself through drawings, prints, paintings, clothing design and sculptures of fibreglass, bronze and marble.
Her undulating artworks appear to be visual representations of her grasp of movement and form fluidity - an extension of the physically embodied artistry that she shared through dance and in front of the camera. Today, 30 years since she passed away, The Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn Trust keeps the legacy of her art alive, allowing younger generations to discover the woman who created so much art on her own terms, as both artist and muse.
Model Lisa Fonssagrives, in blue and white bathing suit by Brigance, seated in V position, and spelling out VOGUE above. Photo: Horst P. Horst / The Condé Nast Publications
Model, Lisa Fonssagrives, leaning against tree stump, wearing veil with pompadour chou and silk jersey wedding dress in rose-beige. Photo: John Rawlings / The Condé Nast Publications
While she will always be remembered as the world’s first supermodel, Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn was also, in her own words, “a sculptor all my life, I was a form in space”. A prolific artist who was as multifaceted as the number of images in which she appeared, the shapes she created in her remarkable life left an imprint far greater than what could be captured on camera.