Jean-Louis Barrault. Buenos Aires. 1950.

Gelatin silver print -measures: 23.5 x 19 cm / 9.25 x 7.48 in-, mounted on a secondary backing of laid paper (38.5 x 28 cm / 15.15 x 11 in), where Barrault wrote a dedication that he signed: “Pour monsieur Luis María Álvarez in souvenir… de notre saison à Buenos Aires ”, on July 1950. At the same time, in the lower margin of the photograph, signed and dated by its author.

Portrait of Jean-Louis Barrault (Le Vésinet, 1910 - Paris, 1994), famous French actor, mime and director. He was a member of the group “Cartel des Quatre” with Jacques Copeau, Louis Jouvet, Charles Dullin and Gaston Baty, an innovative theatrical ensemble from the interwar period. Later, together with his wife, he joined the duo “Compañía Les Renaud-Barrault” with an illustrious career in Paris and on international tours in Europe, the United States and South America, visiting Buenos Aires three times: 1950, 1954 and 1961. The portrait dates back to his first trip to our country; Barrault dedicated it in his own handwriting to the writer from Santiago del Estero, Luis María Álvarez.

His appearance on the Buenos Aires theater scene caused a strong impact on both the public and the artists of the time. As we read Ernesto Schoo in an article published in La Nación in 2000, entitled “The unforgettable visit”: “It was a jubilant shudder, of physical expansion, that went through the theater schools, where the young people of that time felt, with good reason , who were attending a revolutionary event”. Such quality of physical expression, also observed by Heinrich, was intensified by very close and lateral light, to obtain this magnificent portrait.

Annemarie Heinrich (1912 - 1985), of German origin, was one of the most prominent portraitists who acted in our country. Trained in the trade already in Argentina, where she moved with her family in 1926, she was characterized by artistically documenting the most relevant figures in theater, cinema, dance and the plastic arts in general since the 1940s. The social magazines of that time -especially, “Radiolandia” included her as the star photographer of their staff- Heinrich encouraged her studies in the management of laboratory work with remarkable results.

GGOM