Marcel Thomas (1909-2000) - portrait de Jean-Paul Belmondo - signée au verso

Very beautiful photograph of Jean-Paul Belmondo (1933-2021), a French actor, one of the greatest stars of French cinema, who was revealed in 1960 by Breathless (À bout de souffle) by Jean-Luc Godard. Nicknamed “Bébel,” he enjoyed immense popular success thanks to films such as The Man from Rio, The Magnificent, and The Professional. Photograph signed on the back. Marcel Thomas is a French photographer with an unconventional career. It was after World War II that he settled in Paris, working in the apparel industry. From 1947 to 1990, thanks to the help of doorman friends in the great Parisian hotels, he photographed, with their consent, hundreds of French and international stars. He approached them with a friend who asked for an autograph, then suggested that his companion take a photo of them; hence the “posed” rather than “stolen” aspect of this one. Marcel Thomas took these photos as a hobby and did not commercialize them, but he accumulated several thousand. Shortly before his death in August 2000, he bequeathed his photos to his friend, the writer Gérard Gagnepain, whom he charged with making his collection known.

Estimate:£250.92

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