Cousin Bichonnade in flight, 40 rue Cortambert, Paris

Jacques Henri Lartigue was only eleven years old when he took this photograph of his cousin Bichonnade in mid-flight, jumping from a staircase. Born into an extremely wealthy Parisian family, Lartigue was given his first camera at the age of seven by his father, also a keen photographer. His obsession for documenting his own experiences and the antics of his family and friends in France saw him create an oeuvre of more than 250,000 photographs.

Essentially a private undertaking – a visual autobiography – his photographs were virtually unknown until 1963, when the Museum of Modern Art in New York staged an exhibition of his work. The exhibition established Lartigue’s significance as a photographer, and his works are now celebrated as one of the  great records of early twentieth-century French life.

Julie Robinson, Senior Curator Prints, Drawings and Photographs