Jacques Henri Lartigue

Jacques Henri Lartigue took his first photographs at the age of six, using his father’s camera, and started keeping what would become a lifelong diary. In 1904 he began making photographs and drawings of family games and childhood experiences, also capturing the beginnings of aviation and cars and the smart women of the Bois de Boulogne as well as society and sporting events. An unfailingly curious amateur, he tried out all the available techniques, tirelessly recording the fleeting moments and meticulously arranging his several thousand images in large albums.
However, it would seem that photography was not his true vocation. In 1915 he attended the Académie Jullian: painting was to remain his professional activity and from 1922 onwards he exhibited in the salons of Paris and southern France.

His acquaintances in the world of the arts included Sacha Guitry and Yvonne Printemps, Kees van Dongen, Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau, while his passion for movies saw him work as a still photographer with Jacques Feyder, Abel Gance, Robert Bresson, François Truffaut and Federico Fellini.

biography

Born in Courbevoie, France in 1894
Died in Nice, France in 1986

Jacques Henri Lartigue - Marie Bailey, à la Piscine d’Eden Roc, Cap d’Antibes, septembre 1977
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Marie Bailey, à la Piscine d’Eden Roc, Cap d’Antibes, septembre 1977, Archival Pigment Print, printed later, 40 x 30 cm
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Beausoleil, 1958
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Beausoleil, 1958, Archival pigment print, 40 x 50 cm

Although Lartigue occasionally sold his pictures to the press and exhibited at the Galerie d’Orsay alongside Brassaï, Man Ray and Doisneau, his reputation as a photographer was not truly established until he was 69, with a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the publication of a portfolio in Life. He now added his father’s first name to his own surname, becoming Jacques Henri Lartigue. Worldwide fame came three years later with his first book, The Family Album, followed in 1970, by Diary of a Century, conceived by Richard Avedon. In 1975 he had his first French retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. For the rest of his life, Lartigue was busy answering commissions from fashion and decoration magazines.

He also produced the official photograph of the new French president, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.

All images are copyright Ministère de la Culture-France / AAJHL

Jacques Henri Lartigue - Florette, Opio, 1969
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Florette, Opio, 1969, Archival Pigment Print, printed later, 30 x 40 cm
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Loisy, Paris, 1964
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Loisy, Paris, 1964, Archival Pigment Print, printed later, 40 x 50 cm
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Bois de Boulogne, 1960
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Bois de Boulogne, 1960, Archival Pigment Print, printed later, 30 x 40 cm
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Florette, Piozzo, 1960
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Florette, Piozzo, 1960, Archival pigment print, 30 x 40 cm
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Moi dans la brume, Piémont, 1955
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Moi dans la brume, Piémont, 1955, Archival Pigment Print, printed later, 30 x 40 cm
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Florette dans la Morgan, Provence, 1954
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Florette dans la Morgan, Provence, 1954, Archival pigment print, printed later, 30 x 40 cm
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Florette, 1956
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Florette, 1956, Archival pigment print, 30 x 40 cm
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Florette, Monte Carlo Beach, 1958
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Florette, Monte Carlo Beach, 1958, Archival Pigment Print, printed later, 24 x 30 cm
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Florette, Vence, 1954
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Florette, Vence, 1954, Archival Pigment Print, printed later, 40 x 50 cm
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Opio, 1963
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Opio, 1963, Archival Pigment Print, printed later, 40 x 50 cm
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Grand Prix de l’A.C.F. Automobile Delage Circuit de Dieppe, 1912
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Grand Prix de l’A.C.F. Automobile Delage Circuit de Dieppe, 1912, Gelatin silver print on Baryt paper, 50 x 60 cm
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Renée, Paris, 1931
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Renée, Paris, 1931, Gelatin silver print on Baryt paper, 30 x 40 cm
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Cousine Caro, M. Plantevigne, Villerville, 1906
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Cousine Caro, M. Plantevigne, Villerville, 1906, Gelatin silver print, printed 1983, 30 x 40 cm
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, Paris, 1911
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, Paris, 1911, Gelatin silver print, printed 1984, 30 x 40 cm
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Zizou dans son bateau pneu, Rougat, 1911
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Zizou dans son bateau pneu, Rougat, 1911, Gelatin silver print on Baryt paper, 40 x 30 cm
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Florette, Côte d'Azur, 1953
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Florette, Côte d'Azur, 1953, Gelatin silver print on Baryt paper, 40 x 30 cm
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Bibi et Michèle Verby, Lac d’Aix-Les-Bains, 1928
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Bibi et Michèle Verby, Lac d’Aix-Les-Bains, 1928, Gelatin silver print on Baryt paper, printed 1984, 30 x 40 cm
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Renée, Palm Beach, Cannes, 1931, Gelatin silver print, printed 1981, 29 x 39 cm
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Solange, 1929
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Solange, 1929, Gelatin silver print, 40,6 × 30,5
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Renée, Nice, 1931
Jacques Henri Lartigue - Renée, Nice, 1931, Platinum print, 40 x 50 cm