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Irving Penn Photography

American, 1917-2009

With a career in magazines that spanned the mid-20th century heyday of print journalism and lasted through the first decade of the 21st, Irving Penn was the preeminent photographer for six decades at Vogue, where he worked right up until his death, in 2009, at age 92.

Penn’s refined and dynamic photography of models, celebrities and products like Clinique and Jell-O pudding, all shot in compositions of stunning equipoise in the cool remove of his minimal studio setups, were designed to stop traffic and cut through the clutter of magazine pages.

Penn flourished under the mentorship of two legendary art directors: Harper’s Bazaar‘s Alexey Brodovitch and Vogue‘s Alexander Liberman, both Russian émigrés like Penn’s father. Brodovitch introduced Penn to Surrealism and avant-garde photography as his teacher at the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art and hired him as his assistant at Harper’s Bazaar during the summers of 1937 and ’38. Penn bought his first camera after graduating that year. He met Liberman in 1941, passing off to the recent New York transplant his freelance art director job at Saks Fifth Avenue. Liberman returned the favor by hiring Penn at Vogue in 1943 to sketch cover concepts, later encouraging him to shoot his unconventional juxtapositions of accessories and household items himself.

Assigned to photograph some portraits in the mid-1940s, Penn took a cue from the stage-set windows at Saks. He angled two studio flats in his studio and placed his subjects, including Truman Capote, Jerome Robbins and Salvador Dalí, in the resulting tight corner, literally and psychologically. Spencer Tracy leans jauntily against the walls in his portrait, while Georgia O'Keeffe simmers straight-armed in her confinement.

Penn didn’t work well with the distractions of the outside world. In 1950, when he was instructed by Liberman to buy an evening jacket and shoot the couture shows in Paris, he managed the assignment by having the dresses brought to him. He rented a top-floor studio with great light but no electricity and photographed models, including Lisa Fonssagrives (whom he married shortly after), against a mottled gray theater curtain that he continued to use for the rest of his career. Between deliveries from Dior and Balenciaga, he began his personal project “Small Trades,” in which he had local Parisians — a knife grinder, a mailman, a cucumber seller — pose for him with tools of their trade against the same backdrop. (He extended the series in London and New York.)

While Penn made bold, reductive still lifes for advertising campaigns throughout his career, in 1972 he applied his sculptural understanding of form to the unlikeliest of subjects: cigarette butts he gathered from the streets. The Museum of Modern Art showed Penn’s cigarette butts in 1975, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibited another series of material salvaged from the street in 1977. At this time, Penn also began revisiting his earlier photographs, reprinting them at larger scale and with the more painterly quality achieved with the platinum-palladium process. In his lush, oversized platinum-palladium prints, he elevates the lowly castoffs to heroic objects worthy of archaeological scrutiny.

Find vintage Irving Penn photography on 1stDibs.

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Artist: Irving Penn
Still life with Watermelon, NY
By Irving Penn
Located in Miami, FL
Phillips de Pury Collection of Alain Dominique Perrin Printed 1985, One from an edition of 21 dye transfer prints Signed Irving Penn Verso Literature: Szarkowki, Irving Penn Irving...
Category

1940s Modern Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Dye Transfer

Nude No. 57, 1949–1950
By Irving Penn
Located in Miami, FL
The work is elegantly framed in a high-end modern frame with archival matting. 1 of no more than 12, each print differs somewhat from the others Negative and print made 1949-1950 I....
Category

1940s Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Still life with Watermelon, NY
By Irving Penn
Located in Miami, FL
Phillips de Pury Collection of Alain Dominique Perrin Printed 1985, One from an edition of 21 dye transfer prints Signed Irving Penn Verso Literature: Szarkowki, Irving Penn Irving...
Category

1940s Modern Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Dye Transfer

Still Life with Mouse, New York
By Irving Penn
Located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Signed, titled, dated and copyrighted 1983 on back of print. Stamped, 'Signed silver print of this negative not exceeding' and 78 written in pencil on back of print. Annotated, 'Copy...
Category

20th Century Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Untitled (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn)
By Irving Penn
Located in Kansas City, MO
Irving Penn Title: Untitled (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn) Medium: Glossy, fibre based paper Date: New York, circa 1949 Dimensions: 11 x 14 inches Stamped ...
Category

1940s Modern Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin, Photographic Paper

Pagoda
By Irving Penn
Located in New York, NY
Pagoda 1975 Signed, titled, dated, and numbered in pencil, verso Platinum print (Edition of 49) 10 x 7.5 inches, image This platinum print is from the “Street Materials Series.” ...
Category

1970s Contemporary Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Platinum

Pear with Seeds
By Irving Penn
Located in New York, NY
Pear with Seeds, June 1993/November 1993-February 1994 Signed, titled, dated, numbered, and inscribed in pencil, verso Platinum-palladium print on Rives paper mounted to aluminum ...
Category

1990s Contemporary Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Platinum

New York Still Life
By Irving Penn
Located in New York, NY
New York Still Life, 1947/April 1980 Signed, titled, dated, numbered, and inscribed in pencil, verso Platinum-palladium print on Rives paper mo...
Category

1940s Contemporary Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Platinum

Mermaid Dress (Rochas) [Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn], Paris
By Irving Penn
Located in New York, NY
Mermaid Dress (Rochas) [Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn], Paris, 1950/June 1979 Signed, titled, dated, numbered, and inscribed in pencil, verso Platinum-pallad...
Category

1950s Contemporary Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Platinum

Woman with Roses on her Arm (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn in a Lafaurie Dress)
By Irving Penn
Located in London, GB
Woman with Roses on her Arm (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn in a Lafaurie Dress), Paris, 1950 Signed, inscribed with title, edition and priting details and stamped with photographer's copyri...
Category

Late 20th Century Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Joan Miró
By Irving Penn
Located in New York, NY
Signed, verso Various copyright and studio stamps, verso Vintage gelatin silver print This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City.
Category

1940s Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Woman with Sunblock, New York - Irving Penn (Colour Photography)
By Irving Penn
Located in London, GB
Woman with Sunblock, New York - Irving Penn (Colour Photography) Signed, titled, dated and stamped with photographer's copyright stamp on reverse Dye transfer print, printed 1985 15....
Category

1960s Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Dye Transfer

Dior Kerchief and Glove, Paris
By Irving Penn
Located in New York, NY
This photograph is an Edition of 9 and is signed by the photographer.
Category

1950s Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

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Bryce (View of Osaka, Japan from city's tallest building is in background)
By Sebastian Perinotti
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THIS VINTAGE SILVER GELATIN PRINT IS FROM AN EDITION OF 3, Bryce was taken in Osaka, Japan at Abeno Harukas, Japan’s tallest building. The photograph was shot on 35mm film on a Contax T3 Sebastian...
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TANNER, ALMOST SPRING
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THIS VINTAGE SILVER GELATIN PRINT IS FROM AN EDITION OF 3. The photograph of Tanner were originally shot on a Polaroid Land 360 from my series ‘Diary Non Diary’. Sebastian Perinotti...
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Man with Trousers
By Arthur Tress
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Silver gelatin print, 19cm x 19cm (print size), (50cm x 40cm in mount), unframed, but contained within archive quality mount. Tress is one of the most renowned and innovative photographers of his generation. Citing his influences as Hokusai, Frank Lloyd Wright, Picasso, El Lissitzky, Duane Michaels...
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1980s Surrealist Irving Penn Photography

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San Juan
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Located in Dallas, TX
Edition 3/10 Signed, dated, titled, and numbered in pencil on print verso. Gelatin silver print 11 1/4 x 11 1/4 in.
Category

20th Century Modern Irving Penn Photography

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San Juan
San Juan
H 11.25 in W 11.25 in D 0.07 in
Grace (Kings Road) - unique solarized gelatin silver artist print
By Mona Kuhn
Located in San Francisco, CA
In Kings Road (2022) Mona Kuhn lyrically reconsiders the realms of time and space within the midcentury architectural elements of the iconic Schindler House in Los Angeles. Built by Austrian architect Rudolph M. Schindler in 1922, the house was both a social and design experiment and an avant-garde hub for intellectuals and artists in the 1920s and ’30s. The body of works incorporates chromogenic color prints, reflecting vignettes and materials of the building's emotional architecture, juxtaposition with unique solarized gelatin silver prints capturing traces of an ethereal human presence. Grace (2022) Kings Road: A Rudolph Schindler House 30" x 40" / 76cm x 102cm /edition of 12 15" x 20" / 38cm x 56cm / edition of 12 limited edition solarization photograph printed by the artist + accompanied by signed artist certificate: artist signature label (8x10") signed/editioned/dated/titled by the artist + stamped for authenticity label is placed centered on verso of the mounted print __________________ About the artist Acclaimed for her contemporary depictions, Kuhn is considered a leading artist in the world of figurative discourse. Throughout a career spanning more than twenty years, the underlying theme of her work is her reflection on humanity’s longing for spiritual connection and solidarity. As she solidified her photographic style, Kuhn created a notable approach to the nude by developing friendships with her subjects, and employing a range of playful visual strategies that use natural light and minimalist settings to evoke a sublime sense of comfort between the human figure and its environment. Her work is natural, restful, and a reinterpretation of the nude in the canon of contemporary art. For the past two decades, the Los-Angeles based artist's works have been shown steadily, revealing an astonishing consistency in technique, of subject and of purpose. In 2001, Kuhn’s photographs were first seen by an influential audience during the exhibition at Charles Cowles Gallery in Chelsea, New York. Kuhn’s distinct aesthetic has propelled her as one of the most collectible contemporary art photographers—her work is in private and public collections worldwide and she is represented by galleries across the United States, Europe and Asia. Kuhn was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1969, of German descent. In 1989, Kuhn moved to the US and earned her BA from The Ohio State University, before furthering her studies at the San Francisco Art Institute. She is currently an independent scholar at The Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Occasionally, Mona teaches at UCLA and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Kuhn’s first monograph, Photographs, was debuted by Steidl in 2004; followed by Evidence (2007), Native (2010), Bordeaux Series (2011), Private (2014), and She Disappeared into Complete Silence (2018/19). In addition, Stanley/Barker Editions published Kuhn's Bushes & Succulents in 2018. In 2021, Thames & Hudson published a career retrospective titled Works. Kuhn's most recent publication Kings Road (2022) with Steidl accompanies a multi-dimensional museum traveling exhibition shown in Europe and the US. Mona Kuhn’s work is in private and public collections worldwide, including The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Hammer Museum, Perez Art Museum Miami, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Kiyosato Museum in Japan. Kuhn's work has been exhibited at The Louvre Museum and Le Bal in Paris; The Whitechapel Gallery and Royal Academy of Arts in London; Musée de l’Elysée in Switzerland; Leopold Museum in Vienna Austria, The Polygon Gallery in Vancouver Canada, Taipei Fine Arts Museum in Taiwan and Australian Centre for Photography. Mona Kuhn lives and works in Los Angeles. __________________ Solo Exhibitions 2025 Mona Kuhn: Y Tu Desnudo será Un Gran Poema, Museum of Contemporary Art, Malaga, Spain Mona Kuhn: Kings Road, Lianzhou Museum of Photography, China 2024 Mona Kuhn: The Schindler House, A Love Affair, Galerie XII...
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21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Vintage Silver Gelatin Photograph Print, Girls on a Beach Photo, Two Man Show
Located in Surfside, FL
Richard Lebowitz, b. 1937, American, (RISD Faculty 1964-1995, Photography; Professor Emeritus) Tom Young, b. 1951, American, (RISD MFA 1977, Photography) TIT...
Category

1980s American Modern Irving Penn Photography

Materials

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steve - ritual
By Frank Yamrus
Located in New York, NY
Gelatin silver print Signed, dated, and numbered, verso 10 x 8 inches, sheet 7 x 7 inches, image (Edition of 10) 14 x 11 inches, sheet 10 x 10 inches, image (Edition of 10) 20 x 1...
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1990s Contemporary Irving Penn Photography

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Reg Lancaster 'Birkin and Gainsbourg' Limited Edition Photographic Print, 30x40
By Reg Lancaster
Located in San Rafael, CA
By photographer Reg Lancaster, English actress Jane Birkin and French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, at home in Paris, 1969. As an authorized Getty Images Gallery partner, we ...
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1960s Modern Irving Penn Photography

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Pop Art Vintage Color Photograph Dye Transfer Print "In My Life" Audrey Flack
By Audrey Flack
Located in Surfside, FL
Hand signed and titled in ink by the artist from edition of 50 (plus proofs). Color Photo printed at CVI Lab by master printer Guy Stricherz. Published by Prestige Art Ltd. From the color saturated 1980's. "In My Life" featuring flowers, a lit candle, dice, an Oriental rug, music notes. a pocket watch and a small porcelain box...
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1980s Photorealist Irving Penn Photography

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Photographic Paper, C Print, Dye Transfer

Male Nude with Head Down (Sepia Toned Figurative Photograph by David Halliday)
By David Halliday
Located in Hudson, NY
Contemporary figurative sepia toned photograph of nude male model Sepia toned silver gelatin print, edition 3 of 25 Image size: 8 x 8 inches 17.5 x 16.5 x 1 inches framed with 8-ply white mat and non reflective glass. Signed and dated below image with atelier stamp This contemporary figurative photograph was taken by David Halliday in 1998. The sepia toned silver gelatin print beautifully captures a standing male model on a simple monotone background. The nude model's flawless skin complements the similarly toned sepia backdrop, while contrasts in light and shadow accentuate his toned back and shoulder muscles. The figure's casual pose lends a serene atmosphere to the image. This print, 3rd in the edition of 25, is framed in a custom brown wood Larson Juhl frame with an 8 ply white mat and non reflective glass. The print is signed with an atelier stamp on the lower right. About the Artist: David Halliday's photographs are about beauty, pure and simple. His primary subjects are carefully composed still lifes, portraits and landscapes which he shoots in black and white film with only natural light. He is a purist behind the lens, rarely manipulating his negatives in any way, and a master in the darkroom. His work has an ethereal quality that's translated not only through the subject, but also by the warm colors and sepia tones he uses in his printing. More about the work: A master of light, David Halliday produces lush and elegant images that are both classical and modern. Celebrated for his ‘purist’ eye, he poetically captures the nude male body in a selection of sepia-toned prints from 1996. Rarely revealing the model's face, Halliday prefers to focus on the natural drape of limbs, soft folds of flawless skin, and curvature of the spine. Overall, a stunningly intimate portrayal of the male form done with elegance and charm. Resume: Born 1958, Glen Cove, New York Lives in Schodack Landing, NY EDUCATION 1998 Penland School of Crafts, Penland, North Carolina 1988 The Maine Photographic Workshops, Rockport, Maine 1976-79 Syracuse University, New York 1974-76 Wooster School Community Art Center, Danbury, Connecticut SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2013 Threadbare/New Photographs, Arthur Roger Galley, New Orleans, LA McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, TX 2012 The Past Still Present, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA 2010 Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA Wessel+O’Connor Fine Art, Lambertville, NJ Julie Heller...
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1990s Contemporary Irving Penn Photography

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Vintage Silver Gelatin Photograph Surrealist Doll Art Photo, Jazz Photographer
Located in Surfside, FL
These were from a show of her work. Influenced by Surrealism and Dada Photographs these are images of old children's dolls in various states of decay. These bear the influence of Hans Bellmer, Dora Maar and Man Ray. Jo Ann Krivin born in Reasnor, Iowa in 1933, daughter to Earl Guthrie and Lillie Cramer. She graduated from Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, with a bachelor of music degree in voice. She became a copywriter for the CBS Television affiliate in Des Moines, and then a public relations writer for Columbia Records in New York. She later owned and directed The Cramer Gallery in Glen Rock, N.J. Krivin photographed many jazz musicians during the 1980s and 1990s, and published two books of her jazz photos, "25 Years of the Jazz Room at William Paterson University" and "Jazz Studies." Her jazz and doll portraits have been exhibited in group and solo shows, museums, university galleries, and jazz festivals. She was married for over 50 years to painter, musician, and educator Martin Krivin. One of the few women in the field of jazz photography, JoAnn Krivin documented the professional jazz scene from the late 1970's until the late 1990's photographing close to 700 musicians. Her works have been exhibited frequently in solo shows at festivals, museums and galleries across the country. She has served as a still photographer for New Jersey Public Television and has contributed to a variety of national jazz publications. Her book, Twenty Five Years of the Jazz Room at William Paterson University, was published in 2003. Woman artist with a feminist tinge to these photographs. Her work was exhibited at the Ben Shahn Galleries. The exhibit featured photographs of some of the jazz world’s most well-known musicians, including Sonny Rollins, Joe Williams, Art Farmer, Benny Golson, Milt Hinton...
Category

20th Century Surrealist Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Previously Available Items
Nude No 19 (Cropped)
By Irving Penn
Located in New York, NY
Irving Penn Nude No 19 (Cropped), 1949-1950 Vintage gelatin silver print 20 × 15 7/8 in.
Category

1940s Modern Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Nude No 81 (Variant)
By Irving Penn
Located in New York, NY
Irving Penn Nude No 81 (Variant) (1949 -1950) Vintage gelatin silver print 19 15/16 × 15 3/4 in.
Category

1940s Modern Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Girl Sitting (Cameroon), 1974
By Irving Penn
Located in New York, NY
Irving Penn Girl Sitting (Cameroon), 1974, Printed November 1978 Platinum Palladium Print 20 x 20 inches Signed and numbered edition of 40 addition...
Category

1970s Modern Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Platinum

Five Moroccan Women
By Irving Penn
Located in New York, NY
IRVING PENN Five Moroccan Women, 1971 Platinum palladium print, printed 1979. 20 1/8 x 19 3/4 in. (51.1 x 50.2 cm) Signed, titled, dated, numbered ...
Category

1970s Modern Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Platinum

Nude No 56 (Variant)
By Irving Penn
Located in New York, NY
Nude No 56 (Variant), 1949-1950, printed 1980 Vintage gelatin silver print paper: 19 7/8 × 15 7/8 in Image: 15 3/4 x 15 3/16 Signed and numbered edition of 17
Category

1940s Modern Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

New Guinea man with Painted-on Glasses
By Irving Penn
Located in New York, NY
Irving Penn New Guinea man with Painted-on Glasses, 1970, Printed April 1979 Platinum Palladium Print 20 x 20 in Signed and numbered edition of 50
Category

1960s Modern Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Platinum

Nude
By Irving Penn
Located in New York, NY
Irving Penn Nude No 141 (Variant), 1949-50, Printed 1980 Silver Gelatin Print Sheet: 19 15/16 x 15 3/4 Image: 15 5/8 x 14 3/4 Signed and numbered edition of 15 Please inquire...
Category

1950s Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Nude
Nude
H 20 in W 16 in
Callot Swallow-tail Dress
By Irving Penn
Located in New York, NY
Irving Penn (1917-2009) Callot Swallow-tail Dress, 1974 platinum-palladium print, printed 1978 signed, titled, dated, numbered edition of 19', in pencil, 20 x 20 inches
Category

1970s Modern Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Platinum

Sculptors Model
By Irving Penn
Located in New York, NY
Sculptors Model, Paris 1950 platinum-palladium print, printed 1960 signed, titled, dated in pencil on verso ed 35 print size 18.5 x 11.5 inches paper size 22.25 x 17.75 inches ...
Category

1950s Modern Irving Penn Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Football Face, New York
By Irving Penn
Located in New York, NY
Photographer Irving Penn (American, 1917–2009) is celebrated for his compelling portraits, scenes, and still lifes, in genres ranging from fashion to travel photography. Born in Plai...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Irving Penn Photography

Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I, New York
By Irving Penn
Located in New York, NY
Photographer Irving Penn (American, 1917–2009) is celebrated for his compelling portraits, scenes, and still lifes, in genres ranging from fashion to travel photography. Born in Plai...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Irving Penn Photography

Irving Penn photography for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Irving Penn photography available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Irving Penn in silver gelatin print, platinum print, dye transfer print and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Irving Penn photography, so small editions measuring 8 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Newbold Bohemia, Peter Beard, and Michael O'Brien. Irving Penn photography prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $6,900 and tops out at $185,000, while the average work can sell for $52,000.
Questions About Irving Penn Photography
  • 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022
    Celebrated American fashion photographer Irving Penn made great contributions to photography through his use of simple backgrounds. This gave him greater control over aspects like the lighting, and asserted his subjects and their fashions as the sole focus of the composition. Shop a collection of Irving Penn photography from some of the world’s top sellers on 1stDibs.

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