Jacques-Henri Lartigue Overview

At age 15, Jacques-Henri Lartigue remarked, "People say: 'I do not trust my eyes.' Myself, I always trust them -- my eyes -- but there are days when they bring me slightly too much astonishment." This visually impressionable teenager would eventually... [more]

At age 15, Jacques-Henri Lartigue remarked, "People say: 'I do not trust my eyes.' Myself, I always trust them -- my eyes -- but there are days when they bring me slightly too much astonishment." This visually impressionable teenager would eventually develop into a world-famous photographer, painter, and socialite. Introduced to photography as a child by his father, an amateur, Lartigue was eight when he received his first camera. He spent his adolescent years recording the leisurely life and travels of the wealthy Lartigue family. Intrigued with the possiblility of capturing motion in a picture, he took his first action shots in 1904. His special affinity for airplanes developed into a sophisticated series of photos on motion and modernity. When his family moved to Paris in 1911 he discovered fashion in the Bois de Boulogne. Ladies of the elite class, actresses, and models became his favorite subjects. In 1915 he added painting to his repertoire and established himself as chronicler of social life from the Belle Epoque, continuing through Art Deco all the way into the 1980s. In 1963, the Museum of Modern Art in New York dedicated a large solo exhibition to Lartigue's life work. [show less]