WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture

Artists›Irving Penn

Irving Penn

Irving Penn

1917–2009

WA-00005604

PhotographyPhotography

Representation

None documented

29

Institutional Exhibitions

351

Works in Collection

399

Assets Indexed

10

Authority-backed Facts

0

Publications Referenced

90%

Profile Completeness

Cultural Positioning

Influence Graph

No influence edges encoded yet.

Authority Records (2)

WikidataQ318604

Selected Institutional Exhibitions

View all exhibitions →

No image

Irving Penn

Gagosian

2026

No image

Picturing "Greatness"

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1988

No image

Self Portrait: The Photographer's Persona, 1840�1985

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1985–1986

No image

Irving Penn

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1984

No image

Still Life

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1981–1982

No image

Reinstallation of the Collection

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1980

No image

Edward Steichen Photography Center Reinstallation

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1979

No image

People Watching

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1979

No image

New York/New York

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1978

No image

Irving Penn: Recent Works

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1975

No image

Portrait Photographs

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1969

No image

Photography as Printmaking

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1968

Field Verification (6 fields)

5 cross-verified · 1 single-source

BiographyManual Rehabilitation 2026-05-06 + Gallery Pace+1· 95%✓
Birth yearManual Rehabilitation 2026-05-06 + Artsy· 95%✓
NationalityManual Rehabilitation 2026-05-06 + Artsy· 95%✓
Wikidata IdManual Rehabilitation 2026-05-06· 95%✓
Death yearManual Rehabilitation 2026-05-06· 95%✓
LocationGallery Generic· 72%

Source Registry (4)

Pace-Galleryhttps://www.pacegallery.com/artists/
Tier 3 · Scraped/inferred100%
Christies-Artsyhttps://www.artsy.net/artist/irving-penn
Tier 3 · Scraped/inferred100%
Sothebyshttps://www.sothebys.com/en/artists/irving-penn
Tier 3 · Scraped/inferred100%
Manual Rehabilitationhttps://www.moma.org/artists/4548
Tier 3 · Scraped/inferred95%

About

Why this artist matters now

Irving Penn worked primarily in photography, producing fashion images, formal portraiture, and still lifes that share a quality of meticulous studio control and spare, often white or grey, seamless backgrounds. His decades-long association with Vogue shaped mid-century fashion photography, while his advertising work for clients including Issey Miyake and Clinique extended his formal rigour into commercial contexts. Across genres, Penn pursued a compressed, frontal clarity that gives his subjects, whether couture or a crushed cigarette, an equivalent sense of weight and presence.

Source: Pace Gallery · Trust score: 100% · Updated 2mo ago

Graph relationships

Taste overlap and adjacency

Movement

Photography

Medium

Photography

Related Artists

12 in graph

Institutional

Museum Collections

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Cleveland Museum of Art Art Institute of Chicago

Canonical record

Artworks (351)

Jasper Johns

2006 · Gelatin silver print

9 11/16 × 9 5/8" (24.6 × 24.4 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg

2005 · Gelatin silver print

14 11/16 × 14 5/8" (37.3 × 37.1 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Nicole Kidman in an Olivier Theyskens Design for Rochas, New York

2003 · Gelatin silver print

15 1/4 × 15 1/4" (38.8 × 38.7 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

1,000 Year Old Eggs (B), New York

2003 · Chromogenic print

34 13/16 × 27 9/16" (88.4 × 70 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Mascara Wars, New York

2001 · Chromogenic print

15 11/16 × 24" (39.8 × 61 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Dewy Skin, New York

2001 · Gelatin silver print

17 5/8 × 15 1/16" (44.7 × 38.2 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Underfoot II, New York

Underfoot II, New York

2000 · Gelatin silver print

Image: 49 × 50.3 cm (19 5/16 × 19 13/16 in.); Paper: 50.1 × 56.9 cm (19 3/4 × 22 7/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Underfoot VI, New York

Underfoot VI, New York

2000 · Gelatin silver print

Image: 49.3 × 48.9 cm (19 7/16 × 19 5/16 in.); Paper: 56.4 × 50.1 cm (22 1/4 × 19 3/4 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Underfoot V, New York

Underfoot V, New York

2000 · Gelatin silver print

Image: 49.2 × 49.4 cm (19 3/8 × 19 1/2 in.); Paper: 56.2 × 50.4 cm (22 3/16 × 19 7/8 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Underfoot III, New York

Underfoot III, New York

2000 · Gelatin silver print

Image: 49.6 × 49.2 cm (19 9/16 × 19 3/8 in.); Paper: 56.2 × 50.2 cm (22 3/16 × 19 13/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Underfoot IV, New York

Underfoot IV, New York

2000 · Gelatin silver print

Image: 48.5 × 48.2 cm (19 1/8 × 19 in.); Paper: 56 × 50.1 cm (22 1/16 × 19 3/4 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Underfoot VIII, New York

Underfoot VIII, New York

2000 · Gelatin silver print

Image: 38.7 × 39 cm (15 1/4 × 15 3/8 in.); Paper: 45.5 × 41 cm (17 15/16 × 16 3/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Underfoot IX, New York

Underfoot IX, New York

2000 · Gelatin silver print

Image: 48.8 × 48 cm (19 1/4 × 18 15/16 in.); Paper: 55.3 × 50.1 cm (21 13/16 × 19 3/4 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Underfoot XI, New York

Underfoot XI, New York

2000 · Gelatin silver print

Image: 48.4 × 48.4 cm (19 1/16 × 19 1/16 in.); Paper: 55.2 × 49.9 cm (21 3/4 × 19 11/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Underfoot X, New York

Underfoot X, New York

2000 · Gelatin silver print

Image: 49.4 × 49 cm (19 1/2 × 19 5/16 in.); Paper: 56.2 × 50.2 cm (22 3/16 × 19 13/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Underfoot VII, New York

Underfoot VII, New York

2000 · Gelatin silver print

Image: 48.5 × 48 cm (19 1/8 × 18 15/16 in.); Paper: 50 × 49.5 cm (19 11/16 × 19 1/2 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Underfoot XVI, New York

Underfoot XVI, New York

2000 · Gelatin silver print

Image: 49.4 × 49 cm (19 1/2 × 19 5/16 in.); Paper: 56.2 × 49.8 cm (22 3/16 × 19 5/8 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Underfoot XV, New York

Underfoot XV, New York

2000 · Gelatin silver print

Image: 49.2 × 49.8 cm (19 3/8 × 19 5/8 in.); Paper: 56 × 50 cm (22 1/16 × 19 11/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Underfoot XIII, New York

Underfoot XIII, New York

2000 · Gelatin silver print

Image: 49 × 49 cm (19 5/16 × 19 5/16 in.); Paper: 55.4 × 55.4 cm (21 13/16 × 21 13/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Underfoot XIV, New York

Underfoot XIV, New York

2000 · Gelatin silver print

Image: 49.2 × 47.2 cm (19 3/8 × 18 5/8 in.); Paper: 55.7 × 48.9 cm (21 15/16 × 19 5/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Underfoot XII, New York

Underfoot XII, New York

2000 · Gelatin silver print

Image: 39.2 × 39.5 cm (15 7/16 × 15 9/16 in.); Paper: 40 × 46.2 cm (15 3/4 × 18 1/4 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Underfoot XVIII, New York

Underfoot XVIII, New York

2000 · Gelatin silver print

Image: 39.3 × 39.3 cm (15 1/2 × 15 1/2 in.); Paper: 46.1 × 40.2 cm (18 3/16 × 15 7/8 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Underfoot XIX, New York

Underfoot XIX, New York

2000 · Gelatin silver print

39.3 × 39.2 cm (image); 46.1 × 40.2 (paper)

Art Institute of Chicago

Underfoot XXI, New York

Underfoot XXI, New York

2000 · Gelatin silver print

Image: 39.2 × 38.9 cm (15 7/16 × 15 3/8 in.); Paper: 44.4 × 40 cm (17 1/2 × 15 3/4 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

View all 351 artworks →

Artwork sources (4)

351 published of 351 catalogued · 237 with image

Art Institute Chicago
233 published233 img
MoMA
109 published4 img
Cleveland Museum of Art
7 published
The Met
2 published

Per-Artwork Provenance Chains (top 6)

6 entries · 1 sources

Jasper Johns, New York
1983 · Cleveland · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number
Burt Reynolds, New York
1972 · Cleveland · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number
12 Hands of Miles Davis and His Trumpet, New York
1986 · Cleveland · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number
André Minaux, Paris
1951 · Cleveland · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number
Woody Allen as Charlie Chaplin, New York, 1972
1972 · Cleveland · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number
Richard Avedon, New York
1985 · Cleveland · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number

Record

Images

12 assets

Artsy artist portrait

Artsy

The Hand of Miles Davis, New York (Art Institute of Chicago)

Art Institute of Chicago

The Hand of Miles Davis, New York (Art Institute of Chicago)

Art Institute of Chicago

The Hand of Miles Davis, New York (Art Institute of Chicago)

Art Institute of Chicago

The Hand of Miles Davis, New York (Art Institute of Chicago)

Art Institute of Chicago

The Hand of Miles Davis, New York (Art Institute of Chicago)

Art Institute of Chicago

The Hand of Miles Davis, New York (Art Institute of Chicago)

Art Institute of Chicago

The Hand of Miles Davis, New York (Art Institute of Chicago)

Art Institute of Chicago

View all 12 media items →

Relationships

7

Movements1

Collections6

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Cleveland Museum of Art Art Institute of Chicago Christie's Rago Gagosian

Institutional

Representation & Collections

Gallery

Gagosian

In collection

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

In collection

Cleveland Museum of Art

In collection

Art Institute of Chicago

Market

Auction sale history

Houses that have sold works by this artist at auction

2 lots · 2025–2026

Background

Education

The University of the Arts

Visual Arts · 1938

Abraham Lincoln High School

Visual Arts

Market

Auction History

Work	Auction House	Date	Estimate	Hammer Price
Untitled	Rago	Feb 2026	$40,000 – $60,000	Unsold
Untitled	Rago	Dec 2025	$100,000 – $150,000	Unsold