A romance with style: their photos for Vogue defined 20th-century elegance, but Horst and Huene were more than trendsetters--they were lovers. (art).

Their photos for Vogue defined 20th-century elegance, but Horst and Huene were more than trendsetters they were lovers

George Hoyningen-Huene was introduced to Horst P. Horst at a Paris cafe in 1930, and their attraction was immediate and mutual. Huene, a fashion illustrator and Vogue photographer, was taken by Horst's intellectual curiosity and stunning beauty, while Horst was intrigued by the older Huene's worldly sophistication.

The intimate and professional relationship that followed produced some of the most enduring fashion images of the century. And from October 21 to January 6 the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, will feature these photographs in a show titled "The Look: Images of Glamour and Style, Photographs by Horst and Hoyningen-Huene."

When he met Huene, the German Horst was tiring of his apprenticeship with famed Bauhaus architect Le Corbusier. Horst and Huene began spending more and more time together and even rented adjoining apartments in Paris. Huene, who was born a Russian baron and left his country soon after the Bolshevik Revolution, traveled in a ratified circle that included Coco Chanel, Greta Garbo, Salvador Dali, Jean Cocteau, Cecil Beaton, Marlene Dietrich, and Kurt Weill. Certainly the romance of Paris in the 1930s and the fashion world it intersected provided infinite inspiration for the new couple.

Horst finally quit his architecture job and began working closely with Huene, both as a model and an assistant. The seminude photos Huene took of Horst are idealized images that are not only a testament to his young lover's beauty but exquisite examples of how Greek and Roman classicism influenced Huene's style. Those long hours in Vogue's Paris studio gave Horst an insider's view of how Huene produced such dramatically lit and glamorous images, and he learned the importance of rigorous composition and attention to detail.

Soon Horst picked up a camera, and the mentor-protege relationship was complete. Huene, who had learned from the master Edward Steichen, introduced Horst to painterly influences like Van Dyck, Vermeer, and Ingres as well as the reality-manipulating surrealists, many of whom shared Paris as their home.

Horst went on to photograph for Vogue and other Conde Nast publications into the 1980s. Huene left fashion behind and turned to travel-book publishing, production design, and teaching.

While Horst and Huene ended their relationship as lovers after several years, they remained lifelong friends even after they both moved to America (Horst in 1939, Huene in 1946). They continued to share the home they built together in Tunisia, and there was always a room set aside in Horst's New York apartment for Huene. And when Huene died, he left his catalog to Horst. This enduring relationship was special not only because it spanned the lifetime of two men; it also raised the bar of fashion photography, demanding that it transcend mere commerce into the realm of art.

Find more on Horst, Hoyningen-Huene, and links to related Internet sites at www.advocate.com

Stukin also writes for Time.