Ballet Theatre, New York

Photography and Media

1947, printed January 1977

Irving Penn
American, 1917–2009

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Photography and Media

Artist: Irving Penn
Title: Ballet Theatre, New York
Place: United States (Artist's nationality)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1947
Medium: Platinum-palladium print
Edition: 7 of 25
Inscriptions: Inscribed verso: “BALLET THEATRE / 933 [in a circle]”; inscribed verso: “BF 360 Paper on Aluminum / Multiple Coating and Printing / 1 [in a circle] Platinum / 2 [in a circle] Platinum-palladium”; inscribed and stamped verso: “Print made January 1977 / Deacidified”; inscribed verso: “7/25”; signed and stamped verso: “Irving Penn [in a circle] / Hand-coated by the photographer”; inscribed and stamped verso: “In addition to 25 numbered prints of this image / in platinum metals, unnumbered, but signed, silver prints not exceeding a total of 60 may exist.”; stamped and inscribed verso: “PHOTOGRAPH BY IRVING PENN / Copyright © 1978 by / THE CONDE NAST PUBLICATIONS INC. / Not to be reproduced without / written permission of the / copyright holder.”
Dimensions: Image: 39.1 × 54.9 cm (15 7/16 × 21 5/8 in.); Paper: 56 × 63.4 cm (22 1/16 × 25 in.); Mount: 56 × 66.1 cm (22 1/16 × 26 1/16 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Mrs. Leigh B. Block
Reference Number: 1977.910
Copyright: Copyright Condé Nast Publications, Inc.

Penn, Irving. 1960. “Moments Preserved.” Simon and Schuster. p. 146. (other print of this image)
Szarkowski, John. 1984. “Irving Penn.” Exh. cat. Museum of Modern Art/New York Graphic Society Books. pl. 15. (other print of this image)
Turner, Peter. 1985. “American Images: Photography 1945–1980.” Exh. cat. Barbican Gallery/Penguin Books. p. 90. (other print of this image)
Foresta, Merry A. and William F. Stapp. 1990. “Irving Penn: Master Images.” Exh. cat. National Museum of American Art and National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 103, cat. 67. (other print of this image)
Penn, Irving. 1991. “Passage: A Work Record.” Knopf. p. 40. (other print of this image)
Westerbeck, Colin. 1997. “Irving Penn: A Career in Photography.” Exh. cat. Art Institute of Chicago/Bulfinch Press. p. 177, cat. 18.
Greenough, Sarah. 2005. “Irving Penn: Platinum Prints.” Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art/Yale University Press. pl. 7. (other print of this image)

Art Institute of Chicago, “Irving Penn, A Career in Photography,” November 22, 1997–February 1, 1998; traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia, State Hermitage Museum, March 1–May 16, 1998; Hamburg, Germany, Deichtorhallen, June 18–September 6, 1998; Munich, Germany, Müchner Stadtmuseum, October 6, 1998–February 21, 1999; San Francisco, California, Friends of Photography/Ansel Adams Center for Photography, November 11, 1999–January 23, 2000; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 25–June 4, 2000; Paris, France, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, September 13–November 5, 2000 (Chicago only). (Colin Westerbeck)

Marlborough Gallery, New York [then the artist’s representative], by September 1977; sold to the Art Institute, 1977.

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