Mies van der Rohe and Philip Jonhson

Irving Penn (1917-2009), one of the undisputed masters of twentieth-century photography, is known for his iconic images of haute couture and still life, but also, and above all, for his magnificent portraits of the artists, writers and celebrities who marked the cultural landscape of their time.

A German-born architect Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) is one of the major protagonists of the modern movement in architecture. He was also the last director of the Bauhaus between 1930 and 1933. A pioneer in the use of glass and steel, his first skyscrapers became emblematic buildings in the urban architectural landscape.He collaborated for a long time with another great architect,Philip Johnson (1906-2005), a leading figure in postmodernism.He designed the famous Glass House, built in 1949 in New Canaan, Connecticut. Johnson was the first winner of the Pritzker Prizein 1979.

This photograph was shown for the first time by Pinault Collection in 2023 during the exhibition “Irving Penn, Artists' Portraits”, Villa Les Roches Brunes, Dinard.