Lisa Fonssagrives

Biography Lisa Fonssagrives was born Lisa Birgitta Bernstone on 17 May 1911 in Sweden Uddevalla. She moved from Sweden to Paris to train for ballet (after participating with choreographer Astrid Malmborg in an international competition) and worked as a private dance teacher with Fernand Fonssagrives, She would say that modeling was "still dancing".

Before Fonssagrives came to the United States in 1939, she was already a top model. Her image appeared on the cover of many magazines during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, including Town & Country, Life, Time, Vogue, and the original Vanity Fair. She was reported to be "the highest paid, highest praised, high fashion model in the business". Fonssagrives once described herself as a "good clothes hanger". She married American photographer Irving Penn in 1950 and became his muse.

After her modeling career ended, she designed a leisurewear clothing line for Lord & Taylor.

In 1995, a retrospective exhibition of her work was held at Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Irving Penn donated photographs to the museum in her memory.

The Elton John photography collection auction, held by Christie's on 15 October 2004, sold a 1950 Irving Penn photograph of Fonssagrives for $57,360.