Portrait of Claude GARNIER
Photography
Inventory number
2022.11.15.1.PH.OT.1941.FRDescription
Photographic portrait representing the caricaturist Claude GARNIER (1912-1951) on what seems to be a stage, with against the wall, a stage curtain on which stars and a decapod are drawn. The man stands in front of his easel on which he sketches a portrait of René LESTELLY (1904-1993). The artist is dressed in a plaid rolled up sleeves shirt with a black tie and a light colored trousers ending slightly flared. On the back of the photograph are two stamps from the Stargard military prison camp in Poland.Claude GARNIER is the nephew of the famous singer, designer, librettist and creator of RIP magazines (pseudonym of Georges Gabriel THENON). During World War II, he was taken as a prisoner of war and confined in the Wehrmacht POW camp, Stalag II-D, located near Stargard (now Stargard Szczecinski), Poland. The portrait represented is René LESTELLY (pseudonym of René Edmond Louis LELAIS), son of the opera singer, Louis LELAIS (1871-1919) known as LESTELLY. He began his career at the Trianon in Bordeaux with spoken theatre. Then continued his career in Paris, before embarking on musical comedy in 1933. He chained roles in the theater, in magazines, and even in the cinema. During the Second World War, he ensured with the troop of Marigny the resumption of the successes of the repertoire. He then alternated between spoken theater and operetta, until his retirement in 1978.
Photograph from the family archives of Suzanne FLORAT (Flozanne)
Material
Analog photographyOrigin
1941 Paris, FranceDimensions
Length : 12 cmHeight : 17 cm