A reader and colleague recently introduced me to the magnificent portrait of arctic explorer Peter Freuchen (1886 – 1957) and his wife Dagmar Freuchen – Gale (1904 – 1991) taken in 1947 by portrait and fashion photographer Irving Penn (1917 – 2009) and really fell immediately in love with it.  Luscious blacks and whites and fabulous contrast intentionally created between the towering and massive figure of Peter and the petite figure cut by his wife Dagmar.  It is not without reference to the story of beauty and the beast. I know of few portraits that bear the same intense level of drama and capture both of its subjects ever so perfectly.

Freuchen was one of those larger-than-life figures who defined the twentieth century. Freuchen who was, by the way, six foot seven inches tall, was an arctic explorer, journalist, author, and anthropologist. He starred in an Oscar winning movie and was an Danish resistance fighter against the Nazi.  Sentenced to death, he managed to escape to Sweden.  He is also famous for winning the $64,000 question on the “$64,000 Question.

Legends about Freuchen abound.  He amputated his own toes which had gone gangrenous from frostbite and cut his way out of a blizzard shelter with a knife fashioned from his own feces.  How many people can claim that?

Dagmar Freuchen-Gale, was a teacher, artist, editor, expert on world cuisine. She was a well known fashion illustrator, working for working for magazines such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.

For me this is a new but very deservedly favorite photograph.