Description

The success of the work of Jacques Henri Lartigue, (Courbevoie, June 13, 1894 – Nice, September 12, 1986) came when the artist was almost 70 years old.

It was 1963, and the MOMA in New York hosted an exhibition with the images the photographer had taken at the beginning of his career. In the early years of the twentieth century, in front of which one could not help but recognize the obvious closeness with the work of the great Henri Cartier-Bresson.
“Mon universe c’est un immense parc”, he wrote in his diary: in the period between the two wars, Lartigue narrated the life of the bourgeoisie, devoted to luxury and happiness at all costs.
His sophisticated, revolutionary gaze captured the vacations along the coast of southern France, the elegant cars and their decadent spirit. Seemingly ordinary details, hiding instead private moments that Lartigue reveals to the public through his camera.

The volume “Jacques Henri Lartigue. L’invenzione della felicità”, published by Marsilio, includes an introductory essay by Denis Curti, a personal testimony by photographer Ferdinando Scianna and a text by Marion Perceval that analyzes the history of the enfant prodige’s discovery. Short introductory texts accompany the sections that present a chronological narrative through magnificent shots, some of which are previously unpublished.