JACQUES-HENRI LARTIGUE

Jacques-Henri Lartigue (1894-1986) was born at Courbevoie, France, and he grew up in Paris. His father, a businessman and passionate amateur photographer, gave him his first camera at the age of seven. He was very quickly attracted by movement and, after mastering the technique, took his first ‘snapshots’ of tennis, swimming, bobsledding and other games. In 1932, attracted by the cinema, Jacques-Henri Lartigue acted as assistant director on the film ‘Le Roi Pausole’ for which he also took the official photographs. Jacques-Henri Lartigue became well known as an illustrator and designer during the years 1935-1950. Mr. Lartigue first became known to the American public through an exhibition of photographs organized by John Szarkowski in 1963 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York who saw Jacques-Henri Lartigue as “the precursor of all that is lively and interesting in the middle of the 20th century.”