.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Nearly all the public figures photographed jumping by Philippe Halsman in the 1950s would never otherwise have been caught off guard in this way. Halsman claimed the jumps revealed his sitter's true character: "When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears". (Bullfinch, Philippe Halsman, A Retrospective, p.11.)
The Windsors were a case in point. Asked to photograph the couple in 1956 for the book jacket of the Duchess' memoirs, Halsman was not expecting to photograph them jumping, as they had refused regally to do so at an earlier sitting in 1952. This time, however, the Duchess, anxious to soften her severe public image, insisted on jumping. She kicked off her high heels in preparation and the Duke followed suit. The photograph was published widely in 1956 and also appeared in Life in November 1959 as part of an excerpt of Halsman's Jump Book.
The Windsors were a case in point. Asked to photograph the couple in 1956 for the book jacket of the Duchess' memoirs, Halsman was not expecting to photograph them jumping, as they had refused regally to do so at an earlier sitting in 1952. This time, however, the Duchess, anxious to soften her severe public image, insisted on jumping. She kicked off her high heels in preparation and the Duke followed suit. The photograph was published widely in 1956 and also appeared in Life in November 1959 as part of an excerpt of Halsman's Jump Book.