The photographs created by Irving
Penn have long been recognized as milestones in the evolution of fashion
photography and portraiture. As a photographer for Harper's Bazaar and Vogue
and because of his elegant and spare portrait style, Penn has been
identified as the heir to the fashion photography tradition set by Baron Adolf
de Meyer in the 1930s. By discarding artificially lit, cluttered, and ungainly
sets and props in favor of compositionally neutral backdrops and natural north
light, Penn is able to focus attention on the sitter alone.

In this photograph of the writer
and artist Jean Cocteau, the sunlight emphasizes the myriad textures and patterns
on the wall and in the subject's clothing. In many of Penn's portraits, costume
is as much a means of identification and description as the individual's
expression or stance. Cocteau has been described by Penn as a man who
"confounds by his versatility, his wit, his power to stimulate new ideas
and new talent." Something of that versatility is reflected by the
writer's apparel, in which stripes, checks, and plaids are cavalierly juxtaposed
with wonderful effect. However detailed the portrait may appear to be, Penn's
unusually keen sense of the abstract endows it with an exquisite overall
compositional unity.