Timeline

1894

Born at Courbevoie, France

1900

Using his father's camera (and with his help), Jacques Lartigue takes his first photographs.

1902

Henri Lartigue gives Jacques his first camera: a 13 x 18 chamber in wood.

1904

His father continues to give him cameras, which become progressively more sophisticated, lighter and easier to handle. Jacques can now photograph anything (including movement) and, thanks to a stereoscopic camera, can even produce three- dimensional images (taking some 5,000 up to 1928).

1911

At the Sorbonne, he attends the lectures of Marius Aubert, assistant to Gabriel Lippmann who is perfecting a new process of color photography.

1912

Jacques Lartigue adds a new camera to his collection, a Nettel 6 x 13, which will enable him to photograph panoramic views.

He is given a "Pathé" film camera by his father.

1914

Germany declares war on France. Jacques Lartigue's conscription is deferred for health reasons

1915

With ambitions of becoming a painter, Jacques Lartigue enters the Académie Jullian, where he studies under Laurens and Decheneau.

1916

Lartigue puts himself and his racing car (a Pic-Pic 16 hp) at the disposal of the army doctors staffing the hospitals of Paris.

1919

17 December: Jacques Lartigue marries Madeleine Messager, daughter of André Messager, composer and former director of the Opéra-comique, Paris, Covent Garden, London, and the Paris Opera.

1922

In Cannes, he photographs the soon-to-be- famous Suzanne Lenglen during training.

1923

Jacques Lartigue takes his first photographs using artificial light.

1932

Acted as assistant director on the film ‘Le Roi Pausole’ for which he also took the official photographs

1954

Albert Plécy publishes some of Lartigue's photographs in Point de vue and Images du monde

1955

Lartigue's photographs of Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau receive worldwide publicity.

1964

From this point on, Lartigue uses 24 x 36 reflex cameras (Pentax, Canon, Olympus).

1966

With the international publication of Family A/bum, Lartigue's work becomes known throughout the world.

1970

Publication of the book Diary of a Century (Stills from ray Life), conceived by the photographer Richard Avedon and containing photographs by Jacques-Henri Lartigue taken after 1930.

1974

Appointed official photographer to mark Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's seven years as president.

1976

Jacques-Henri Lartigue carries out a photographic commission entitled La Star et son couturier, featuring actresses and costume designers.

1977

Lartigue carries out a series of portraits of Marc Chagall, at his home in Vence. The photographs are published in Vogue the following year.

1979

Jacques-Henri Lartigue donates his entire photgraphic work to the French state, comprising 130 original albums designed and captioned by himself, and some 100,000 negatives and prints in black and white and color.

1986

Died in Nice