Irving Penn's 1962 photograph of humorist S. J. Perelman is a sober portrait of the funnyman. A 1980 print, numbered 14 of 15, was offered Thursday at Swann Auction Galleries in New York with an estimate of $10,000 to $15,000. It sold for $8000 plus a $2000 buyer's premium.
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| S. J. Perelman Swann Auction Galleries, March 11, 2021 |
Note: S. J. Perelman: Selected Writings is coming from the Library of America this August.
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Irving Penn assembled eighteen New Yorker cartoonists for a classic photograph that appeared in the August 1947 issue of Vogue. A print was sold yesterday at Swann Auction Galleries in New York for $5,000 plus the buyer's premium.
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| Irving Penn Swann Auction Galleries March 11, 2021 Hammer Price |
Many of us around today first encountered this image not in Vogue but in Brendan Gill's essential Here at The New Yorker (1975). Gill's book is clearly Swann's source for its auction listing. Note how Gill's correct publication information "Vogue in 1947" became Swann's misleading "the 1947 issue of Vogue." The unfortunate misspelling of Richard Decker's name is carried into the current auction listing. Gill's text helpfully identifies each of the cartoonists by position, and takes particular notice of one prominent cartoonist who was not present.
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| Brendan Gill, Here at The New Yorker (1975) |
Note: Michael Maslin wrote about this photograph for The New Yorker's Cartoon Desk in 2008. See the piece here.
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| Irving Penn, Saul Steinberg, 1947 |
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| Vintage Gravures Auction, March 13, 2015 |
