The J. Paul Getty Museum has acquired a collection of 189 prints from Irving Penn’s celebrated Cuzco series, donated by the Irving Penn Foundation. The acquisition also includes a maquette for a book titled Christmas in Cuzco. This is an addition to the museum’s existing holdings of Penn’s Small Trades series, including 252 gelatin-silver and platinum-palladium prints. Therefore, Getty is now one of the most important destinations in the world for the study and display of Penn’s work.

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Who Was Irving Penn?

Born in 1917 in Plainfield, New Jersey, Penn studied under Alexey Brodovitch, one of the most influential design minds of the 20th century. He later landed at Vogue magazine, where he shot covers, portraits, and fashion for over six decades.

What set Penn apart wasn’t just his eye. It was his obsession with craft. While elaborate artificial lighting was the norm, he preferred simple grey or white backdrops and natural light, letting the subject carry everything. His portrait subjects included Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Igor Stravinsky. Later in his career, he became deeply absorbed in platinum printing, hand-coating paper with platinum emulsion to achieve a depth and subtlety that no magazine reproduction could capture.

He was also one of the first photographers to successfully cross the line between commercial and fine art photography. His work influenced a whole generation of photographers that followed, Richard Avedon and Annie Leibovitz among them. Penn passed away in 2009 at the age of 92. His foundation has continued placing his work in major institutions around the world ever since.

The Cuzco Series

In 1948, after completing a fashion shoot in Peru for Vogue, Penn traveled to Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Inca civilization. He decided to stay for a few extra days and rented a local photography studio. Most of the people who came through were indigenous Peruvians who had traveled to Cuzco to sell their handicrafts for the Christmas season.

Penn offered to pay them for sitting for portraits. The offer confused many of them, as they expected to pay Penn and take portraits home with them, as was the custom.

A Cuzco Children print from 1948 sold at auction in April 2023 for above high estimate, fetching $95,250. The Getty’s acquisition of 189 prints from the series in a single donation is, by any measure, extraordinary.

“When coupled with Penn’s Small Trades series, a set of 252 gelatin-silver and platinum-palladium prints acquired in 2008 and exhibited in 2009, the Cuzco series makes the Getty a key resource for the study and display of Penn’s work, while also building upon the Museum’s efforts to expand the representation of communities in our collection,” says the museum’s director, Timothy Potts.

The Getty’s full Penn holdings are now among the most significant anywhere. For anyone with the chance to visit the Los Angeles museum, this collection is well worth the trip.

[via PetaPixel, The Art Newspaper; lead image credits: Adrià Martín, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons]