LUCIEN HERVÉ (1910-2007) - LÁSZLÓ ELKÁN, DIT Lot n° 57

Le Corbusier à le cabanon, Cap Martin, 1951 Vintage gelatin silver print. Monogrammed and dated on the reverse - artist's stamp. Vintage gelatin silver print. Dated and monogrammed in pencil on the reverse - photographer's stamp. H_16,5 cm W_16,4 cm Lucien Hervé 1910 August 7, birth of László Elkán in Hódmez vásárhely, Hungary, in a well-to-do family of the Hungarian Jewish bourgeoisie. 1918 The Elkán family moves to Budapest. 1920 March 3, death of his father. He begins intensive piano studies. 1928 After graduating from high school, he begins studying political economy in Vienna. At the same time, he takes drawing classes at the Academy of Fine Arts. 1929 Moves to Paris, where he regularly visits museums, draws and becomes interested in the plastic arts. 1934 Becomes a member of the French Communist Party and an active trade unionist. He works as a designer for Patou, Rochas, Lelong, Paquin and Worth. 1937 He becomes a naturalised French citizen. 1938 He is expelled from the French Communist Party. He works as a journalist with Nicolas Müller, a Hungarian photographer, for Marianne Magazine. 1939 Called up to the fifth infantry regiment, he is an army photographer. 1940 He is taken prisoner by the Germans at Dunkirk. During his captivity. 1945 He rejoins the underground PCF and takes up painting. He escaped and joined the Secret Army in Grenoble, then lived in hiding under the name of Lucien Hervé. In 1943, in Paris, he took part in the clandestine activities of the MNPGD (National Movement of Prisoners of War and Deportees). 1947 He is once again expelled from the PCF and works as a journalist and photographer for Lilliput, France Illustration, Point de vue and Regards. 1949 While working for the magazine L'Art sacré, he meets Father Marie-Alain Couturier, the magazine's director. Thanks to him, he photographs Matisse in his studio in Nice. On the advice of Father Couturier, he visits Le Corbusier's housing project in Marseilles and sends the six hundred and fifty photographs to the architect, who asks him to become his regular photographer. 1950 Marriage to Judith Molnar. 1950 He works regularly for Le Corbusier and receives commissions. 1965 Other architects (Alvar Aalto, Marcel Breuer, Kenz Tange, Richard Neutra, Oscar Niemeyer, Aulis Blomstedt, Bernard Zehrfuss, Jean Balladur, Georges Candilis, Georges-Henri Pingusson, Michel Écochard) and builders such as Jean Prouvé. 1951 First photographic exhibition in Milan, organised by Domus, an architecture magazine. Discovery of the Cistercian abbey of Thoronet. He then begins photographic work at the abbey, giving rise in 1956 to the book La Plus Grande Aventure du monde (The World's Greatest Adventure). 1955 Travels to India with Le Corbusier to photograph Chandigarh and Ahmedabad. 1955 He is the official photographer for the construction of the UNESCO headquarters. 1958 Photographic campaigns in Spain of the Escurial and of the popular architecture of the Mediterranean with a view to two works, never published. 1961 Second trip to India to photograph Le Corbusier's buildings. Then he travels "around the world": Greece, Turkey, Cambodia, Japan, the United States, Mexico, Peru and Brazil. 1962 Photographic mission to Syria, Lebanon and Iran following a commission from the French Institute of Archaeology in Beirut. 1963 Becomes a member of the editorial board of the architectural review Carré bleu. He organises numerous travelling exhibitions of his photographs in France and abroad. 1965 His illness, multiple sclerosis, is diagnosed. The same year, Le Corbusier dies. 1970 From this date onwards, he becomes a member of numerous diploma juries at schools of architecture (Paris, Besançon, Grenoble, etc.). Later, he also gave lectures in several schools of architecture and decorative arts. 1985 Medal of the City of Arles. 1988 Special mention of the jury of the Month of Photography in Paris. 1992 Knight of the Legion of Honor for his activity in the Resistance. 1993 Medal of Plastic Arts of the Academy of Architecture of the City of Paris. 1994 Knight of Arts and Letters. 2000 Grand Prix of Photography of the City of Paris. Order of Merit of Hungary. 2007 October 13: death of his son Daniel Rodolf Hervé, photographer and video maker.