MARC RIBOUD (* 1923) ‘Le Peintre de la Tour Eiffel’, Paris 1953

Gelatin silver print, printed 1980s 50 x 40 cm Signed, annotated and dated by the photographer in ink in the margin, his studio stamp on the reverse LITERATURE Marc Riboud, 50 Years of Photography, Paris 2004, p. 53; Magnum Stories, London 2004, p. 386; Marc Riboud, Portfolio, Munich 2001, cover and plate 8; Marc Riboud, Photographs at Home and Abroad, 2000, cover. “High in the wind-blown steelwork of the 1,080 foot Eiffel Tower, the city of Paris breathtakingly spread out below, a dreamy Frenchman put a fresh coat of paint on the third tallest structure in the world. To help keep him from slipping he wore rope-soled cloth shoes. But otherwise, as he gracefully wielded his brush and languidly bent to the paint pot hung on the girder below, he maintained his dizzy perch only with a one-handed grip and a firm faith.” (‘Blitheful on the Eiffel’, Life Magazine, 3. August 1953) Mit diesen stimmungsvollen Worten wurde ‘Der Maler am Eiffelturm’ 1953 als erste Fotografie Ribouds im Life Magazine publiziert. Sie zog die Aufmerksamkeit von Robert Capa auf sich, der den Franzosen daraufhin einlud, ein Mitarbeiter von Magnum zu werden. Die Aufnahme des Malers Zazou, vorliegend als großformatiger signierter Print, wurde zu einem Synonym für Leichtigkeit und einer Ikone des joie de vivre. With these atmospheric words, 'The Painter on the Eiffel Tower' was the first photograph of Riboud to be published in Life Magazine, in 1953. It drew the attention of Robert Capa, who invited the Frenchman to be a contributor to Magnum. The photograph of the painter Zazou, available as a signed large-format print, became synonymous for lightness and an icon of the joie de vivre.