The Invention of Chic: Thérèse Bonney and Modern Paris

After obtaining a doctorate in letters at the Sorbonne in 1921, the American Thérèse Bonney (1894-1978) began a brilliant career as a journalist and photographer. In 1923, in Paris, she founded the first American photographic agency in Europe specializing in her passions: architecture and design. The photographs of building facades and Parisian luxury boutiques, which she published in the biggest American magazines, quickly enjoyed considerable success. Rarely shown since the 1930s, its archives form a unique catalog of the most famous creators of the modern movement: Herbst, Dunand, Poiret, Ruhlmann, Chareau, Eileen Gray, Puiforcat… Close to Maillol, Matisse and Bonnard, and painted by Rouault and Dufy, with whom she lived, she participated in the organization of exhibitions of French and American artists between Paris and New York. In 1939, Thérèse Bonney became a war reporter. Sent to the Russian-Finnish front, she bore witness to the lives of displaced children and was decorated with the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor at the Liberation.

25 x 21.7 cm

192 pages

180 black and white illustrations

ISBN: 978-2-9092-8372-2

Text in French only