
Irving Penn Archives
<p>Irving Penn (b.1917) is an internationally known fine art, commercial, fashion, and portrait photographer. The collection contains Penn’s complete studio archives, including business and personal correspondence, accounting ledgers, darkroom diaries, contracts, travel diaries and other travel records, manuscripts of published and unpublished writings, and a complete tearsheet record of his work for Condé Nast.</p> <p>It is intimately related to his photographic archive of prints, negatives and proof sheets accessioned in the Art Institute’s <a href="https://www.artic.edu/collection?categoryQuery=contemp&department_ids=Photography">Department of Photography</a>. Both collections were essential to the Art Institute’s 1997 exhibition Irving Penn: a Career in Photography. Portions of this collection are closed to researchers until fifteen years after Penn’s death.</p> <p><a href="http://digital-libraries.artic.edu/cdm/search/collection/findingaids/searchterm/Penn,%20Irving/field/title/mode/all/conn/and/cosuppress/1">View finding aid.</a><br><a href="http://digital-libraries.artic.edu/cdm/search/collection/mqc/searchterm/Penn,%20Irving,%20Archive/field/subcol/mode/all/conn/and/cosuppress/1">View selected images from this collection.</a></p> <p>Collection access:<br>Collections may be accessed in the Franke Reading Room of the Research Center at The Art Institute of Chicago, by appointment only. For further information, consult <a href="https://www.artic.edu/archival-collections/contact-usage-and-faq">the FAQ</a>.</p> <p><a href="https://www.artic.edu/archival-collections/finding-aids">Finding aids by subject</a><br><a href="http://digital-libraries.saic.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/findingaids">Browse all finding aids</a><br><a href="http://digital-libraries.saic.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/mqc">Browse images and media</a><br><a href="https://www.artic.edu/archival-collections/oral-histories">Oral histories</a></p> <p>Contact the Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives:<br>archives@artic.edu</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1924
- Dimensions
- 187 boxes, 1 oversize portfolio, 9 portfolios, flatfile materials and 1 rolled tube: W.: 2865.2 cm (94 ft., in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Irving Penn
Artist

Photography
Irving Penn photographed for Vogue and commercial clients in America and abroad for nearly 70 years. Whether an innovative fashion image, striking portrait or compelling still life, each of Penn’s pictures bears his trademark style of elegant aesthetic simplicity.
Full artist profile →More
More by Irving Penn
Jasper Johns
2006 · Gelatin silver print
Robert Rauschenberg
2005 · Gelatin silver print
Underfoot VIII, New York
2000 · Gelatin silver print
Underfoot XXXII, New York
2000 · Gelatin silver print
Alexey Brodovitch
2000 · Gelatin silver print
Underfoot XXX, New York
2000 · Gelatin silver print
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Irving Penn
- Year
- 1924
- Dimensions
- 187 boxes, 1 oversize portfolio, 9 portfolios, flatfile materials and 1 rolled tube: W.: 2865.2 cm (94 ft., in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1924-017747
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified





