L'Enfant (poster)

Last updated

L'Enfant
Man and Baby
L'enfant.jpg
ArtistSpencer Rowell
Completion date26 May 1986 (1986-05-26)
MediumPhotographic print
SubjectMonochrome studio shot of a semi-naked male model cradling a baby

L'enfant, better known as Man and Baby [1] is a 1987 photographic poster depicting a shirtless male model (Adam Perry) holding a young baby. The image, conceived by Paul Rodriguez was photographed by Spencer Rowell and published in the 1980s by British company Athena Posters. [2] The photograph was said to herald the "sensitive but sexy New Man" aesthetic. [1]

Contents

In 2011 the poster became part of the V&A Print collection and can be viewed in the Prints and Drawings Study Room level C. V&A, London and is published on p. 58 British Posters. Advertising, Art and Activism (Flood., C. V&A: 2012) [3]

In a 2004 British television documentary about L'Enfant, The Model, the Poster and 3,000 Women, Perry claimed that as a result of his poster fame he had slept with 3,000 women. The programme also identified the baby as Greek-Cypriot Stelios Havatzios. Stelios currently lives in Limassol, Cyprus with his family and works as a lawyer. [1] Perry, who was paid £100 for the photo shoot, worked as a London-based carpenter in 2007. [1]

Senator Josh Hawley once hung the photo over his dorm room bed at Stanford. [4]

Further reading

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Montgomery Flagg</span> American artist (1877–1960)

James Montgomery Flagg was an American artist, comics artist, and illustrator. He worked in media ranging from fine art painting to cartooning, but is best remembered for his political posters, particularly his 1917 poster of Uncle Sam created for United States Army recruitment during World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Wall</span> Canadian photographer

Jeffrey Wall, OC, RSA is a Canadian photographer. He is artist best known for his large-scale back-lit Cibachrome photographs and art history writing. Early in his career, he helped define the Vancouver School and he has published essays on the work of his colleagues and fellow Vancouverites Rodney Graham, Ken Lum, and Ian Wallace. His photographic tableaux often take Vancouver's mixture of natural beauty, urban decay, and postmodern and industrial featurelessness as their backdrop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lisa Fonssagrives</span> Swedish model (1911–1992)

Lisa Fonssagrives, was a Swedish model, dancer, sculptor, and photographer. She is widely credited with having been the first supermodel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Dupain</span> Australian photographer (1911–1992)

Maxwell Spencer Dupain AC OBE was an Australian modernist photographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Paul Goude</span> French artist (born 1938)

Jean-Paul Goude is a French graphic designer, illustrator, photographer, advertising film director and event designer. He worked as art director at Esquire magazine in New York City during the 1970s, and choreographed the 1989 Bicentennial Parade in Paris to mark the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. In addition, over the last three decades, he has created campaigns and illustrations for brands including Perrier, Citroën, Kodak, Chanel, Kenzo, Shiseido, Cacharel, H&M, Galeries Lafayette and Desigual.

Will Chalker is an English model and an amateur boxer. He is ranked 11th on Models.com's Money Guys list.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acne Studios</span> Swedish fashion house

Acne Studios is a multidisciplinary luxury fashion house based in Stockholm, Sweden that specializes in men's and women's ready-to-wear fashion, footwear, accessories and denim. When founded in 1996, the label derived its name from the creative collective ACNE; initially an acronym for Associated Computer Nerd Enterprises and later a backronym of Ambition to Create Novel Expressions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lisette Model</span> American photographer

Lisette Model was an Austrian-born American photographer primarily known for the frank humanism of her street photography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Haskins</span> British photographer (1926–2009)

Samuel Joseph Haskins, was a British photographer, born and raised in South Africa. He started his career in Johannesburg and moved to London in 1968. Haskins is best known for his contribution to in-camera image montage, Haskins Posters (1973) and the 1960s figure photography trilogy Five Girls (book) (1962), Cowboy Kate & Other Stories (1964) and November Girl (book) (1967), plus an ode to sub-saharan tribal Africa "African Image (book) (1967).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tennis Girl</span> 1977 British poster

The Tennis Girl is a British poster of a female tennis player without underwear that has become a British pop icon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugene Richards</span> American documentary photographer (born 1944)

Eugene Richards is an American documentary photographer living in Brooklyn, New York. He has published many books of photography and has been a member of Magnum Photos and of VII Photo Agency. He was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts.

British <i>Vogue</i> British edition of fashion magazine Vogue

British Vogue is a British fashion magazine based in London and first published in 1916. It is the British edition of the American magazine Vogue and is owned and distributed by Condé Nast. Currently edited by Edward Enninful, British Vogue is said to link fashion to high society and class, teaching its readers how to 'assume a distinctively chic and modern appearance'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poster</span> Type of graphic advertisement

A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and informative. Posters may be used for many purposes. They are a frequent tool of advertisers, propagandists, protestors, and other groups trying to communicate a message. Posters are also used for reproductions of artwork, particularly famous works, and are generally low-cost compared to the original artwork. The modern poster, as we know it, however, dates back to the 1840s and 1850s when the printing industry perfected colour lithography and made mass production possible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Athena (retailer)</span> British art retailer and retail chain

Athena is a British art retailer and retail chain, which was founded in 1964. Today it sells fine art prints from a variety of UK artists. However it is best known for its iconic posters such as L'Enfant, The Lord of the Rings from 1976 by Jimmy Cauty, the Tennis Girl poster from 1976 and "Beyond City Limits", published in the 1990s. The company's popular success divided opinion amongst intellectuals and art critics who were uncertain as to whether these works were too vulgar and populist to be considered art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Lee (photographer)</span> British photographer and film director (1945–2023)

James Seymour Lee was a British photographer and film director based in London. A fashion photographer for magazines during the late sixties and seventies, he worked closely with Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour in London and New York on fashion and advertising shoots. He switched to film directing in the late seventies, creating hundreds of television commercials as well as working on several full-length feature films. His earlier photographs form part of the permanent collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, with additional photographs in the archives of The Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow. A book of his life's work entitled Jim Lee / Arrested was launched in May 2012 alongside an exhibition of photographs from the book at Somerset House, London. Lee's work is regularly exhibited at art galleries around the world, and he continued to collaborate on imaginative campaigns, in addition to developing his own creative projects. In September 2015, Lee's autobiographical book LIFE IN B&W was released by Quartet at the Groucho Club in London. In 2016, Lee was a speaker at the Oxford Literary Festival, where he was also interviewed by writer Paul Blezard. In October 2018, Lee's latest book, The BOX, was published by The Box Book Company. In 2019, Lee published My BOX, a version of The BOX for children between the ages of 8-15 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">We Can Do It!</span> American World War II wartime poster

"We Can Do It!" is an American World War II wartime poster produced by J. Howard Miller in 1943 for Westinghouse Electric as an inspirational image to boost female worker morale.

David Steen was a British photographer. His subjects included show business and sports stars, and politicians.

Jamie Hawkesworth is a British fashion and documentary photographer.

Percy Venner Bradshaw, who often signed PVB, was a British illustrator who also created the Press Art School, a correspondence course for drawing.

Heather "Herry" Perry was a graphic artist, illustrator, and printmaker best known for her prolific design work for Transport for London and London Underground throughout the 1920s and 1930s.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Milmo, Cahal (16 January 2007). "The curse of 'Man and baby': Athena, and the birth of a legend". The Independent. London.
  2. Jackson, Peter; Stevenson, Nick; Brooks, Kate (2001). Making sense of men's magazines. Cambridge: Polity Press. p. 185. ISBN   9780745621760.
  3. "L'Enfant | Spencer Rowell". Explore the Collections. Victoria and Albert Museum. 9 October 1986. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  4. Plott, Elaina; Hakim, Danny (8 March 2021). "Josh Hawley is 'Not Going Anywhere.' How Did He Get Here?". The New York Times.