“Since I was a child, I have a kind of disease: all the things that amaze me go away without my memory keeping enough of them “(JH Lartigue). Most of those “things” were moments. I believe I have the same disease. That is probably why I love Jacques Henry Lartigue so much.

“Washing away from the soul the dust of everyday life” ©AntoineRenault2016
Acrylic on canvas 100x70cm   inspired by JH Lartigue photography

This early photographer chose to be a painter because photography was not considered a serious activity. He exhibited in the same gallery as Monet in Paris. Amusing coincidences: I discovered his work in NYC in the year of his death (1986). He became a world famous photographer in NYC the year of my birth.

Fortune favors the prepared mind: In 1962, he had 100,000 shots behind him but he still thought he was a painter. During a stopover in NYC, a meeting is organized by a friend with John Szarkowski,  young new curator of the photography department at MoMA. Love at first sight. In 1963, at the age of 69, he exhibits for the first time as a photographer… at the MoMA!!! In November of the same year, Life magazine features a 10-page article in the same issue that reveals the JFK assassination in Dallas. He had met young Senator Kennedy 10 years ago with friends in Antibes. This Life issue spreads across the planet and builds his worldwide reputation.

Picasso said that “art washes away from the soul of the dust of every day.” Personal expression gives beauty and meaning to human experience. Lartigue spent a whole day photographing enthusiastically Picasso and his universe. He did tit all his life: catch what amazed him.

His color work was recently shown at the FOAM museum of Amsterdam. I had a crush on 4 photos, including that of her friend Mary Bailey. He loved women. You can feel it in this picture.