Horst P. Horst
Encyclopedia
Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann (August 14, 1906November 18, 1999) who chose to be known as Horst P. Horst was a German-American fashion photographer.

Early life

The younger of two sons, Horst was born in Weißenfels-an-der-Saale
Weißenfels
Weißenfels is the largest town of the Burgenlandkreis district, in southern Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the river Saale, approximately south of Halle.-History:...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, to Klara (Schönbrodt) and Max Bohrmann. His father was a successful merchant.

In his teens, he met dancer Evan Weidemann at the home of his aunt, and this aroused his interest in avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

 art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

. In the late 1920s, Horst studied at Hamburg Kunstgewerbeschule
Kunstgewerbeschule
A Kunstgewerbeschule was the old name for an advanced school of applied arts in German-speaking countries. The first such schools were opened in Kassel in 1867 and Berlin and Munich in 1868 with other German towns following. They are now merged into universities....

, leaving there to go to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 to study under the architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...

.

Youth

While in Paris, he befriended many people in the art community and attended many galleries. In 1930 he met Vogue photographer Baron George Hoyningen-Huene
George Hoyningen-Huene
Baron George Hoyningen-Huene was a seminal fashion photographer of the 1920s and 1930s. He was born in Russia to Baltic German and American parents and spent his working life in France, England and the United States.-Europe:...

, a half-Baltic, half-American nobleman, and became his photographic assistant, occasional model and lover. He traveled to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 with him that winter. While there, they visited photographer Cecil Beaton
Cecil Beaton
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, CBE was an English fashion and portrait photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre...

, who was working for the British edition of Vogue
Vogue (British magazine)
The British edition of Vogue is a fashion magazine that has been published since 1916.When British Vogue was launched, it was the first overseas edition of an existing fashion magazine. Under the magazine's first editor, Elspeth Champcommunal, the magazine was essentially the same as the American...

. In 1931, Horst began his association with Vogue, publishing his first photograph in the French edition of Vogue in November of that year. It was a full page advertisement showing a model in black velvet holding a Klytia scent bottle.

His first exhibition was hung in La Plume d'Or in Paris in 1932. It was reviewed by Janet Flanner
Janet Flanner
Janet Flanner was an American writer and journalist who served as the Paris correspondent of The New Yorker magazine from 1925 until she retired in 1975. She wrote under the pen name "Genêt"...

 in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...

, and this review, which appeared after his exhibit was over, made Horst instantly famous. Horst made a portrait of Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...

 the same year, the first in a series of celebrities he would photograph during his life. Within two years, he had photographed Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...

, Yvonne Printemps
Yvonne Printemps
Yvonne Printemps was a French singer and actress.-Biography:Born Yvonne Wigniolle, she made her debut at the age of 12 in a revue at La Cigale in Paris. She was dancing at the Folies Bergère at age 13...

, Lisa Fonssagrives
Lisa Fonssagrives
Lisa Fonssagrives , born Lisa Birgitta Bernstone was a Swedish fashion model widely credited as the first supermodel.-Biography:...

, Natasha Paley, Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...

, Elsa Schiaparelli
Elsa Schiaparelli
Elsa Schiaparelli was an Italian fashion designer. Along with Coco Chanel, her greatest rival, she is regarded as one of the most prominent figures in fashion between the two World Wars. Starting with knitwear, Schiaparelli's designs were heavily influenced by Surrealists like her collaborators...

, and others.

Horst rented an apartment in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 in 1937, and while residing there met Coco Chanel, whom Horst called "the queen of the whole thing". He would photograph her fashions for three decades.

He met Valentine Lawford, British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...

 in 1938 and they would live together as a couple until Lawford's death in 1991. They adopted and raised a son, Richard J. Horst, together.

In 1941, Horst applied for United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 citizenship
Citizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...

. In 1942 he passed an Army physical, and joined the Army on July 2, 1943. On October 21 he received his United States citizenship as Horst P. Horst. He became an Army photographer, with much of his work printed in the forces' magazine Belvoir Castle. In 1945 he photographed United States President Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...

, with whom he became friends, and he photographed every First Lady
First Lady
First Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime...

 in the post-war period at the invitation of the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

. In 1947, Horst moved into his house in Oyster Bay, New York. He designed the white stucco-clad building himself, the design inspired by the houses that he had seen in Tunisia during his relationship with Hoyningen-Huene.

Work

Horst is best known for his photographs of women and fashion, but is also recognized for his photographs of interior architecture, still life
Still life
A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made...

s, especially ones including plant
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

s, and environmental portrait
Environmental portrait
An environmental portrait is a portrait executed in the subject's usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject's life and surroundings...

s. One of the great iconic photos of the Twentieth-Century is "The Mainbocher
Mainbocher
Mainbocher is a fashion label founded by the American couturier Main Rousseau Bocher , also known as Mainbocher. Established in 1929, the house of Mainbocher successfully operated in Paris and then in New York...

 Corset" with its erotically charged mystery, captured by Horst in Vogue’s Paris studio in 1939. Designers like Donna Karan
Donna Karan
Donna Karan is an American fashion designer and the creator of the Donna Karan New York and DKNY clothing labels.-Early life:...

 continue to use the timeless beauty of "The Mainbocher Corset" as an inspiration for their outerwear collections today. His work frequently reflects his interest in surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

 and his regard of the ancient Greek ideal of physical beauty
Beauty
Beauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction. Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology, and culture...

.

His method of work typically entailed careful preparation for the shoot, with the lighting and studio props (of which he used many) arranged in advance. His instructions to models are remembered as being brief and to the point. His published work uses lighting to pick out the subject; he frequently used four spotlights, often one of them pointing down from the ceiling. Only rarely do his photos include shadows falling on the background of the set. Horst rarely, if ever, used filters. While most of his work is in black & white, much of his color photography includes largely monochromatic settings to set off a colorful fashion. Horst's color photography did include documentation of society interior design, well noted in the volume Horst Interiors. He photographed a number of interiors designed by Robert Denning
Robert Denning
Robert Denning was an American interior designer whose lush interpretations of French Victorian decor became an emblem of corporate raider tastes in the 1980s.-Early life:...

 and Vincent Fourcade
Vincent Fourcade
Vincent Gabriel Fourcade was a French interior designer and the business and life partner of Robert Denning...

 of Denning & Fourcade
Denning & Fourcade, Inc.
Robert Denning & Vincent Fourcade, Inc. was an interior design firm which for over forty years was a leader in opulent interiors with offices in New York City and Paris...

 and often visited their homes on Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

 and Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...

. After making the photograph, Horst generally left it up to others to develop, print, crop, and edit his work.

One of his most famous portraits is of Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...

, taken in 1942. She protested the lighting that he had selected and arranged, but he used it anyway. Dietrich liked the results and subsequently used a photo from the session in her own publicity.

Later life

In the 1960s, encouraged by Vogue editor Diana Vreeland
Diana Vreeland
Diana Vreeland was a noted columnist and editor in the field of fashion. She worked for the fashion magazines Harper's Bazaar and Vogue and the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Born as Diana Dalziel, Vreeland was the eldest daughter of American socialite mother Emily Key Hoffman...

, Horst began a series of photos illustrating the lifestyle of international high society
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...

 which included people like:
Consuelo Vanderbilt
Consuelo Vanderbilt
Consuelo Balsan , was a member of the prominent American Vanderbilt family...

, Marella Agnelli
Marella Agnelli
Marella Agnelli, born Princess Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto is an Italian socialite, style icon and wife of Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli...

, Gloria Guinness
Gloria Guinness
Gloria Guinness , born Gloria Rubio y Alatorre, was a Mexican-born socialite and fashion icon of the 20th century, and a contributing editor to Harper's Bazaar from 1963 until 1971...

, Baroness Pauline de Rothschild
Pauline de Rothschild
Pauline de Rothschild was a writer, a fashion designer, and, with her second husband, a translator of both Elizabethan poetry and the plays of Christopher Fry...

 and Baron Philippe de Rothschild
Philippe de Rothschild
Baron Philippe de Rothschild was a member of the Rothschild banking dynasty who became a Grand Prix race-car driver, a screenwriter and playwright, a theatrical producer, a film producer, a poet, and one of the most successful wine growers in the world.-Early life:Born in Paris, Georges Philippe...

, Helen of Greece and Denmark, Baroness Geoffroy de Waldner, Princess Tatiana of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, Lee Radziwill
Lee Radziwill
Caroline Lee Bouvier Canfield Radziwill Ross best known as Lee Radziwill, is an American socialite, public relations executive, and former actress and interior decorator. She is the younger sister of the late First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis...

, Duke of Windsor
Duke of Windsor
The title Duke of Windsor was created in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1937 for Prince Edward, the former King Edward VIII, following his abdication in December 1936. The dukedom takes its name from the town where Windsor Castle, a residence of English monarchs since the Norman Conquest, is...

 and Duchess of Windsor, Peregrine Eliot, 10th Earl of St Germans
Peregrine Eliot, 10th Earl of St Germans
Peregrine Nicholas Eliot, 10th Earl of St Germans was born on 2 January 1941 to Nicholas Richard Michael Eliot, 9th Earl of St Germans and his wife Helen Mary née Villers ....

 and Jacquetta Eliot, Countess of St Germans
Jacquetta Eliot, Countess of St Germans
Jacquetta Jean Frederica Eliot, Countess of St Germans is the third daughter of Miles Wedderburn Lampson, 1st Baron Killearn, his first daughter by his second marriage, to Jacqueline Aldine Leslie née Castellani, daughter of Marchese Senator Aldo Castellani. Jacquetta was known as a society...

, Antenor Patiño
Antenor Patiño
Antenor Patiño Rodríguez was a Bolivian tycoon, heir to his father Simón I...

, Oscar de la Renta
Oscar de la Renta
Oscar de la Renta is one of the world's leading fashion designers. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1973.-Career:...

 and Françoise de Langlade, Desmond Guinness
Desmond Guinness
Hon. Desmond Guinness is an Irish author on Georgian art and architecture and a conservationist.He was the second son of the author and brewer Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne and Diana Mitford...

 and Princess Henriette Marie-Gabrielle von Urach, Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...

, Nancy Lancaster
Nancy Lancaster
Nancy Lancaster was a 20th-century tastemaker and the owner of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, an influential British decorating firm that codified what is known as the English country-house look.-Biography:...

, Yves Saint Laurent, Doris Duke
Doris Duke
Doris Duke was an American heiress, horticulturalist, art collector, and philanthropist.-Family and early life:...

, Emilio Pucci
Emilio Pucci
Emilio Pucci, Marquis of Barsento , was a Florentine Italian fashion designer and politician. He and his eponymous company are synonymous with geometric prints in a kaleidoscope of colours.-Early life:...

, Cy Twombly
Cy Twombly
Edwin Parker "Cy" Twombly, Jr. was an American artist well known for his large-scale, freely scribbled, calligraphic-style graffiti paintings, on solid fields of mostly gray, tan, or off-white colors...

, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier "Jackie" Kennedy Onassis was the wife of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and served as First Lady of the United States during his presidency from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. Five years later she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle...

, Amanda Burden
Amanda Burden
Amanda Jay Mortimer Burden is the director of the New York City Department of City Planning and chair of the City Planning Commission....

, Paloma Picasso
Paloma Picasso
Anne Paloma Picasso known professionally as Paloma Picasso, is a French/Spanish fashion designer and businesswoman, best known for her jewelry designs and signature perfumes. She is the youngest daughter of famed 20th-century artist Pablo Picasso and painter and writer Françoise Gilot...

 and Comtesse Jacqueline de Ribes
Jacqueline de Ribes
Comtesse Jacqueline de Ribes is a French socialite and fashion designer. She is also a member of the International Best Dressed List since 1962.-Early life:...

. The articles were written by the photographer's longtime companion, Valentine Lawford, a former English diplomat. From this point until nearly the time of his death, Horst spent most of his time traveling and photographing. In the mid 1970s, he began working for House & Garden
House & Garden (magazine)
House & Garden was an American shelter magazine published by Condé Nast Publications that focused on interior design, entertaining, and gardening....

magazine as well as for Vogue.

His last photograph for British Vogue
Vogue (British magazine)
The British edition of Vogue is a fashion magazine that has been published since 1916.When British Vogue was launched, it was the first overseas edition of an existing fashion magazine. Under the magazine's first editor, Elspeth Champcommunal, the magazine was essentially the same as the American...

 was in 1991 with Princess Michael of Kent
Princess Michael of Kent
Princess Michael of Kent is an Austrian-Hungarian member of the British Royal Family. She is married to Prince Michael of Kent, who is a grandson of King George V....

, shown against a background of tapestry and wearing a tiara belonging to her mother in law Princess Marina who he had photographed in 1934.

He died at his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
Palm Beach Gardens is a city in Palm Beach County in the U.S. state of Florida. The city is in the center of a rapidly-developing area north of West Palm Beach in the northern part of the county and the South Florida metropolitan area. , the population was 48,452...

, at 93 years of age.

Publications

Books featuring Horst's photography:
  • 1944 Photographs of a Decade
  • 1946 Patterns from Nature - a collection of plant still lifes
  • 1968 Vogue's Book of Houses, Gardens, People
  • 1984 Horst, His Work and His World
  • 1971 Salute to the Thirties (A Studio Book)
  • 1991 Horst - Sixty Years of Photography - this book contains a selection of his work, including his most famous photographs.
  • 1993 Horst : Interiors
  • 1997 Horst P Horst: Magician of Lights
  • 2001 Horst Portraits : 60 Years of Style
  • Spezial Fotografie: Portfolio No. 24

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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