Penelope Tree

Penelope Tree is the only child of Marietta Peabody Tree, a U.S. socialite and political activist, and Ronald, a British journalist, investor and Conservative MP. She is the half-sister of racehorse trainer Jeremy Tree and author Frances FitzGerald, and she is a niece of former Massachusetts governor Endicott Peabody.

Tree's family initially objected to her career as a model, and when she was first photographed at age 13 by Diane Arbus, her father vowed to sue if the pictures were published.{{cite web |author1=Seebohm, Caroline |title=No Regrets: The Life of Marietta Tree. |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_n1_v30/ai_20239566 |website=Washington Monthly |publisher=Simon & Schuster |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080228052221/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_n1_v30/ai_20239566 |archive-date=28 February 2008 |format=Book Review |date=21 October 1997 |url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}

Tree made a striking appearance at the 1966 Black and White Ball thrown by author Truman Capote, wearing a black V-neck tunic with long slashes from the bottom making floating panels, worn over black tights.{{cite book |author1=Davis, Deborah |date=1 February 2006 |title=Party of the Century: The Fabulous Story of Truman Capote and His Black and White Ball|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0-470-09821-9|page=195|df=mdy-all}}

The sensation she caused led photographers Cecil Beaton and Richard Avedon to work together to make her a supermodel.{{cite book |author1=Davis |title=Party of the Century |page=227}} She was 16 and her father had relented. David Bailey described Penelope as "an Egyptian Jiminy Cricket".{{cite book |author1=Harrison, Martin |author2=Bailey, David |title=Birth of the Cool: 1957-1969 |date=16 August 1999 |publisher=Viking Studio |isbn=978-0670888184 |pages=273 |edition=First |df=mdy-all}}

In 1967, Tree moved into Bailey's flat in London's Primrose Hill neighbourhood. It became a social space for hippies during the "Swinging Sixties" who, Bailey recalled, would be "smoking joints I had paid for and calling me a capitalist pig!" In another famous quote, when John Lennon was asked to encapsulate Tree in three words, he replied, "Hot, Hot, Hot, Smart, Smart, Smart!"{{cite news |author1=France, Louise |title=People thought I was a freak. I kind of liked that |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/aug/03/celebrity.women |work=The Observer| publisher= Guardian News and Media Limited |date=2 August 2008 |location=London |quote=When John Lennon was asked to describe her in three words he is said to have replied: 'Hot, hot, hot, smart, smart, smart!'|df=mdy-all}}

Tree has been extensively compared to The Beatles for inspiring the swinging 60's movement and for galvanizing a generation of young American females.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}} Scars from late-onset acne ended her career in the early 1970s: "I went from being sought-after to being shunned because nobody could bear to talk about the way I looked."{{cite web| url=https://www.independent.ie/woman/celeb-news/i-felt-just-like-an-alien-so-i-thought-i-could-look-like-one-26471629.html | title=I felt just like an alien — so I thought I could look like one | website=Independent.ie | last=France | first=Louise | date=24 August 2008 | access-date=6 September 2017 | location=Dublin, Ireland | df=mdy-all}} In 1972, she was arrested for possession of cocaine. In 1974, Bailey and Tree split up and she moved to Sydney. She appeared in the British comedy film The Rutles in 1978.{{IMDb name |0871686}}

She was married to South African musician Ricky Fataar (a member of The Flames, The Rutles, and the Beach Boys). She has two children: Paloma Fataar, a graduate of Bard College and a student of Tibetan Buddhism and music; and Michael MacFarlane; by her relationship with Australian Jungian analyst Stuart MacFarlane.

Penelope Tree is a patron of Lotus Outreach, a charity which works in Cambodia in partnership with local grassroots women's organisations to give girls from the very poorest families the wherewithal to go to school.{{cite journal|author=Penelope Tree|date=June 2009|title=Why Cambodia?|journal=Glass Magazine|page=102|location=London|issn=2041-6318}}

In 1983, English indiepop band Felt released a song called "Penelope Tree", featuring a picture of her on the cover. {{Citation |title=Felt - Penelope Tree |date=June 1983 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/561189-Felt-Penelope-Tree |access-date=2023-06-30 |language=en}}

In 2011, Tree appeared as an interviewee for a documentary on the life of fashion editor Diana Vreeland.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}}

In 2017, she was interviewed for a documentary about Beaton called Love, Cecil

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/aug/03/celebrity.women Interview with Penelope Tree], The Guardian, 2008

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Category:1949 births

Category:Living people

Category:Models from New York City

Category:English female models

Category:English people of American descent

Category:English philanthropists

Category:English expatriates in Australia

Category:Models from London

Category:Peabody family

Category:Marshall Field family