Robert DOISNEAU (1912-1994) - Lot 167

Robert DOISNEAU (1912-1994) Reunion of 4 autograph letters, signed to Jacques and Marie Hélène CARTEAUD. January-May 1993; 7 pages in-4, with envelope. Letters addressed to the male model of his famous photograph "L'Hôtel de Ville et les amoureux". JANUARY 11, 1993: "I'm not used to hostility, and in the last few days I've been troubled by a kind of ingenious machination around this image, the difference between which has been miraculous. Why this one, when there are some 500,000 pictures in my boxes; perhaps it illustrates the symbol of a happiness desired by our contemporaries". Then he quotes a poem by Prévert: "...La petite seconde d'éternité // où tu m'as embrassé // où je t'ai embrassé // un matin dans la lumière de l'hiver." MARCH 14, 1993: "Habit makes you endure a situation unimaginable in the days of both our youth, when life was improvised every morning to get through the traps of the occupation, for example." EASTER MONDAY 19 [93]: "I haven't come to tell you about the Hôtel de Ville and the lovers...the meeting with Ernest Pignon Ernest in a bistro at the Gare de Lyon he photographed me to then make a panel for the theater in Le Creusot." MAY 21 1993: "I'm sluggish at work...a lot of chores that eat away at my days." "Le Baiser de L'Hôtel de Ville" is a famous black-and-white photograph taken in 1950. The two protagonists are theater students Françoise Delbart (née Bonnet) and her boyfriend Jacques CARTEAUD. The photograph having been a huge success, Françoise Bonnet demanded 100,000 F in additional remuneration, as well as a percentage of the commercial profits. Jacques Carteaud refused to join in, refusing to "turn this photographic story into a money-making scheme". On June 2, 1993, the Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance dismissed all three claims. In April 2005, Françoise Bonnet put her photograph up for auction, selling it for €185,000. Attached is a costume which, according to family tradition, would have been worn in the photo. However, the tailoring at the lower seams does not seem to match.