Lucien Hervé (born László Elkán on 7 August 1910 in
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...
,
died 26 June 2007 in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
) was a Hungarian photographer. He was notable for his architectural photography, beginning with his work for Le Corbusier.
Biography
* 1910 : Born as László Elkán on 7 August in Hódmezővásárhely, Hungary, son of Nelly Ritscher and Lajos Elkán (a leather merchant and town councillor).
* 1918 : The Elkán family moves to
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
* 1920 : 3 March, his father dies. Beginning of his
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...
studies.
* 1923 : In addition to his studies of music, sport plays an increasing role in his life. He goes in for
Greco-Roman wrestling and swimming. He befriends working-class youths and turns away from the bourgeois lifestyle of his mother.
* 1928 : Goes to
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, where he enrolls in the university to study economics. At the same time, he takes drawing courses at the Academy of Fine Arts
and visits museums.
* 1929 : In the summer, joins his brother in Paris and spends his time visiting museums. At the end of the year, returns to Budapest.
* 1930 : In February, returns to Paris,
where he lives with Lucienne Savin. Becomes a bank clerk. Abuses at the bank lead to his resignation in 1931. Having been placed on the "black list", he cannot find a job. He becomes active in the French-Hungarian trade union movement, studies economics and attends the workers' university.
* 1932 : Works as designers' representative and then as a fashion designer for couture firms such as:
Patou,
Rochas
Rochas is a fashion, beauty, and perfume house founded in 1925 by French designer Marcel Rochas, the first designer of 2/3-length coats and skirts with pockets and one of the two designers, along with Elsa Schiaparelli, who launched the fashion fo ...
, Lelong, Paquin,
Worth,
Schiaparelli, Molineaux,
Lanvin
Lanvin () is a French luxury fashion house based in Paris. Founded in 1889 by Jeanne Lanvin, it is the oldest French fashion house still in operation. Since 2018, it has been a subsidiary of Shanghai-based Lanvin Group. Bruno Sialelli, a 31-ye ...
,
Chanel.
* 1934 : Member of the French volleyball team that beats Germany in official competition. Joins the
French Communist Party. Lives with Fernande Lacroix (a sales clerk with Patou).
* 1935 : Organises strikes in the fashion industry and is consequently dismissed by the fashion design company Patou. Becomes a union representative in the
Confédération générale du travail (CGT), France's national organized-labor group, then secretary-general of the Central Labour Organization in the eighth arrondissement of Paris. Lives with Mado Ferrand (a head seamstress). Works illegally under the name of Elec.
* 1938 : Receives French citizenship.
In March, he is expelled from the
French Communist Party. In July, begins working with the Hungarian photographer Miklós Müller, and he produces photo reportages for ''Marianne Magazine'', a literary publication.
In September, when the
Munich Agreement
The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, MnÃchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...
is signed, Müller leaves France.
* 1939 : After Müller's departure, Elkán becomes a photojournalist for ''Marianne Magazine;'' for convenience, he uses Müller's byline. His reports deal mainly with social issues, but he also returns to fashion: at the
Maggy Rouff fashion house, he makes a report with the actress Alice Cocea, entitled ''History of a Dress''. He is drafted into the army, in the Fifth Infantry Régiment, and becomes an army photographer
under the command of Colonel
Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. Marries Mado Ferrand.
* 1940 : 4 June, captured by the German forces in the
Battle of Dunkirk. Prisoner of war in Hohenstein, East Prussia. Begins to paint during his captivity. Serves as spokesman for the French Resistance in the prison camp. He and some of his fellows found an underground communist party.
* 1941 : 2 February, arrested by the
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one or ...
for Resistance activities in the camp. Escapes in September. He reaches Vichy France, works for Union Electric on the construction of a hydroelectric station in Fond de France. Joins the underground army of the French Résistance in
Grenoble
lat, Gratianopolis
, commune status = Prefecture and commune
, image = Panorama grenoble.png
, image size =
, caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...
, is in charge of resupplying camps in the mountains. He joins the
Maquis du Vercors, the groups of resistants. Takes the Résistance name of Lucien Hervé. He paints and takes part in the exhibitions of the
Salon d'Automne in Paris.
* 1943 : Reinstated into the underground French Communist Party. In December, called to Paris to direct the secret activity of the ''Mouvement national des prisonniers de guerre et des déportés'' (MNPGD), an organization to help the prisoners of war and the deported people. He produces and distributes leaflets, and goes into hiding.
* 1945 : Works in the direction of the MNPGD, along with
François Mitterrand
François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, ...
. Assistant of the president of the French Red Cross and then general-secretary of the French Aid Organisation for Soviet POWs and Deportees. Meets the Chinese government leader
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. Aft ...
, whose portrait he draws at the Founding Congress of the World Fédération of Trade Unions. Divorces Mado Ferrand. He resumes painting.
* 1946 : In February, sent by
Georges Bidault, président of France's provisional government, on a consular mission to Budapest. Stays for three months.
* 1947 : In January he is expelled for a second time from the French Communist Party. Works occasionally as an interior decorator and a designer of theatre scenery and film posters. He continues to paint and exhibit, and resumes his writing and photography work for magazines such as ''France Illustration'', ''Point de vue'', ''Regards'', ''Lilliput''.
He compiles reports on artistic and cultural themes. He meets Judith Molnár, who later becomes his wife.
* 1949 : Meets the Dominican Father
Marie-Alain Couturier
Marie-Alain Couturier, O.P., (15 November 1897 – 9 February 1954) was a French Dominican friar and Catholic priest, who gained fame as a designer of stained glass windows. He was noted for his modern inspiration in the field of Sacred art.
Li ...
, the editor-in-chief of the ecclesiastical art magazine ''L'Art Sacré'', who introduces him to
Henri Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, and sculptur ...
. In December, on the advice of Father Couturier, he goes to
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fran ...
to photograph the
Unité d'Habitation of
Le Corbusier. He sends Le Corbusier the 650 prints taken in one day. The architect asks him to become his photographer.
* 1950 : Starts photographing intensively for Le Corbusier. 3 November, he marries Judith Molnar.
* 1950-1955 : Photographs regularly for Le Corbusier and, at the same time, for many other international architects (
Alvar Aalto,
Marcel Breuer,
Kenzo Tange,
Richard Neutra,
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was ...
, Aulis Blomstedt), as well as numerous French architects (
Bernard Zehrfuss, Jean Balladur, Georges Candilis,
Georges-Henri Pingusson, Michel Écochard, etc.) and architect-engineers such as
Jean Prouvé.
* 1955 : Accompanies Le Corbusier to
Chandigarh
Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which ...
and
Ahmedabad in India. He photographs the government buildings under construction as well as local historical architecture. He travels to
Fatehpur Sikri,
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders wi ...
and
Jaipur. Commissioned to photograph the construction of the Paris offices of
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. I ...
, designed by the architects Marcel Breuer,
Pier Luigi Nervi and Bernard Zehrfuss. He follows the construction work for three years until its completion.
* 1957 : 2 May, the birth of his son, Daniel Rodolf Hervé.
* 1959 : Commissioned by the Spanish publishing house RM Editorial, he photographs the
Escorial and Méditerranéen vernacular architecture in Spain. The books remained unpublished.
* 1961 : Second trip to Chandigarh. Takes advantage of contracts with the French Electrical and Metallurgy Fédérations, the magazine ''Architecture d'aujourd'hui'', and the publishing house
Éditions Gallimard
Éditions Gallimard (), formerly Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (1911–1919) and Librairie Gallimard (1919–1961), is one of the leading French book publishers. In 2003 it and its subsidiaries published 1,418 titles.
Founded by G ...
to travel around the world (visiting Japan, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Greece, Crete, California, Mexico, Peru, and Brazil).
* 1962 : Engaged by the director of the French Middle Eastern Archaeological Institute to photograph archeological sites in Syria, Lebanon, and Iran.
* 1963 : Joins the editorial board of ''Carré Bleu'', an architectural journal founded in 1958. Launches the traveling exhibition ''Langage de l'architecture''.
* 1965 : First signs of
multiple sclerosis appear.
27 August, Le Corbusier dies.
* 1966-1970 : His illness limits his movements, he concentrates on organising exhibitions and the publication of his books. Makes collages, often using his own photographs. Progressively returns to photography, continuing his researches on abstraction begun in the late 1940s. He writes for architectural journals and studies urban planning issues.
* 1970 : Travels to Belgium to work with the architect Pierre Puttemans on the photographs for a book on modern architecture in Belgium, often accompanied and assisted by his son. Starting in the 1970s, serves on many graduate-exam juries for architecture schools (École Nationale des Beaux-Arts,
École Camondo
The École Camondo is a five-year private school of product design and interior architecture located in Paris, France, which was created in 1944 and was recognized by the French Ministry of Education in 1989. It is named after the Camondo family, ...
, Paris).
* 1974-1984 : A difficult period of his illness. Thanks to his traveling exhibitions, he has a constant presence in artistic life.
* 1997-1998 : Travels to Austria to work with the architect Attila Batár on the photographs for a book on the urban planning of the Mölkersteig district in Vienna.
* 13 October 2000, his son, the photographer and video artist Daniel Rodolf Hervé, died.
Legacy and honors
* 1985 : Under the auspices of the
Rencontres d'Arles, he receives the Medal of the City of Arles, as one of the first donors of his photographs to the
Musée Réattu. He also is awarded by the honorary citizenship of Arles.
* 1990 : Receives the medal of the French
Legion of Honour for his activity in the French Resistance.
* 1993 : Receives the Fine Arts Medal from the Académie of Architecture, Paris.
* 1994 : Named Chevalier
des Arts et des Lettres.
* 2000 : Receives Grand Prize in Photography from the city of Paris. Hungary awards him the Order of Merit of the Republic.
* 2001 : In Hungary, he is elected as a member of the
Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts The Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts ( hu, Széchenyi Irodalmi és Művészeti Akadémia) was created in 1992 as an academy associated yet independent from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. It is intended to be the national academy of arti ...
. He receives an oeuvre award from the Association of Hungarian Photographers. He is awarded with the officer degree of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
* 2004 : He establishes a photographic award – ''Prix Lucien Hervé et Rodolf Hervé'', to support young professional photographers.
Solo exhibitions
*1985 ''Perception de l'architecture" The Rencontres d'Arles festival
*1999 ''Architecte de l'ombre / Le Beau court la rue" The Rencontres d'Arles festival
*2004 ''Fotografie di architettura – Le Corbusier'', Biennale Internazionale di Fotografia di Brescia, Italy
*2005 ''Lucien Hervé, L'œil de l'architecte'', CIVA, Brussels
*2007
''Construction - Composition / Le Corbusier''– Lucien Hervé Fondation Le Corbusier, Paris (this exhibition was on show in India as well)
*2007 ''Le Corbusier – Lucien Hervé'', Galerie Taisei, Tokyo
*2007 ''Rétrospective Lucien Hervé'', Galerie Caméra Obscura, Paris
*2007 ''In memoriam Lucien Hervé'', Galerie du Jour
agnès b., Paris
*200
''Lucien Hervé, Photographies'' Chapelle Bacchus, Besançon
*2008 ''Le Corbusier e Lucien Hervé Construção/Composição'', Lisbon
*2008 ''Párizsi fotográfiák és művészportrék'', Magyar Fotográfusok Háza – Mai Manó Ház, Budapest
*2008 ''Lucien Hervé – The Soul of an Architect'', Michael Hoppen Photography, London
*2009 ''Architettura in immagini. Lucien Hervé fotografa Le Corbusier'', Palazzo Te, Mantua
*2010 ''Lucien Hervé'', Galerie du Jour agnès b., Paris
*2010 ''Lucien Hervé, sculpteur d'images'', Keitelman Galerie, Brussels
*201
''Lucien Hervé 100'' Szépművészeti Múzeum (Museum of Fine Arts), Budapest
*2010 ''Elkán László hazatér. Lucien Hervé 100'', Emlékpont Múzeum, Hódmezővásárhely (Hungary)
*2011 ''Vivants'', Maison de la Photographie Robert Doisneau, Gentilly
*2012 « ''Contacts » – Lucien Hervé'', Galerie Camera Obscura, Paris
Documentary films
* Tamás Margit : « Lucien Hervé », documentaire, 21' – 1992
* Szilvia Seres : « Lucien Hervé », documentaire, 50' – 2005
* Anne Ikhlef
''Concerto en noir et blanc''documentary, 50' - 2007
* Illés Sarkantyu
documentary, 26' - 2010
* Gerrit Messiaen, , documentary, 52' - 2013
* Jérôme Bertrand, ''Chandigarh vu par Lucien Hervé'', documentaire, 22' – 2013 (Kinokast, Vimeo)
Collections and archives
Photographs of the
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. I ...
Headquarters taken between 1955-1958 were donated to UNESCO by Judith Hervé in 2008, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the construction of the Organization's Headquarters, according to Hervé's wishes.
The
Getty Research Institute holds a collection of over 18,000 of Hervé’s photographic negatives
and his photographs are held by other major museums, for example, the
Tate and
MoMA.
The
Conway Library at the
Courtauld Institute of Art is in the process of digitising its archive of primarily architectural photographs, including images taken by Hervé of
Le Corbusier's
Unité d’Habitation
{{Infobox company
, name = Moldtelecom
, logo =
, type = JSC
, foundation = 1 April 1993
, location = Chişinău, Moldova
, key_people = Alexandru Ciubuc CEO interim
, num_employees = 2,750 employees As of 2019
, industry = Telecommunica ...
.
References
External links
www.lucienherve.com- Official site
*Finding aid for
Lucien Hervé photographs of architecture and artworks by Le Corbusier, 1949-1965,
Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. Accession No. 2002.R.41.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herve, Lucien
1910 births
2007 deaths
French photographers
Hungarian photographers
Architectural photographers
French military personnel of World War II
French Resistance members
Recipients of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary
Humanist photographers
People from Hódmezővásárhely