Itinerantdaughter's Blog

I have a very meticulously maintained list of my style icons, past and present, one of which is the bombass sixties/seventies fashion model Penelope Tree. Penelope had quite the late-sixties life: she lived in a trippy London townhouse with photographer David Bailey (upon whom the protagonist in the fantastic Antonioni film Blow-Up was based), played a lot of I-Ching in their purple living room, experimented with heavy eye make-up and was described by John Lennon as, “Hot, hot, hot, smart, smart, smart!”

Tree, from the Top

Any way, Penelope’s first professional portrait was taken by the well-known chronicler of the bizarre, peripheral and deformed, Diane Arbus. Legend has it that Arbus took Penelope’s portrait when she was a tender thirteen years old, and her aristocratic parents threatened to sue if the pictures were ever released.

For years, I have been searching for this picture, fantasizing about the aesthetic orgasm I might have if I saw the product of the collaboration of two complete weirdos. And by searching, I really mean “Google Imaging.” Today, I gave it a shot again, and for some reason, this time I found it no problem! (I am aware of my technological limits, so please spare me. I figured out how to get pictures in this shit, didn’t I?) Turns out Ms. Tree’s photo sold for $15,000 (estimated price prior to auction: 6-8 thou) at Christie’s in April 2008. Just a wee bit out of my price range.

Tree in her living room, photographed by Diane Arbus.

This entry was posted on June 11, 2009 at 8:14 pm and is filed under Things I Love That I Go to Inappropriate Lengths to Track Down. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.