Jean Moral's 'Juliette au bord de la piscine' Captures 1930s Leisure

The article examines Jean Moral's 1933 photograph 'Juliette au bord de la piscine,' taken at the villa of Reynaldo Luza in Formentor, Majorca, Balearic Islands. The image depicts Moral's wife Juliette lounging by a pool, embodying a liberated female ideal. Moral (1906-1999), a French photographer associated with the New Vision movement, favored spontaneous shots using Leica and Rollei cameras. He was the only French photographer contracted by Harper's Bazaar (1933-1946). After his father's death in WWI, Moral was placed in boarding school, which he later rejected by embracing open-air photography. Collector and historian Christian Bouqueret described Moral's vision as that of a free universe. Alongside photographers Daniel Masclet and Pierre Boucher, Moral captured youthful bodies in natural settings, emphasizing formal simplification through oblique perspectives. He also worked as a graphic designer and illustrator, later turning to watercolor on the advice of Francis Picabia.