Robert Doisneau’s “The Kiss” from the 1950 Life shoot to the court case and the auction

Robert Doisneau's famous photograph "The Kiss" was taken for Life magazine in 1950. Doisneau noticed a couple kissing in a Parisian café and proposed that they take part in a shoot, paying them a handsome 500 francs, which in our day is almost 1,500 euros. For more than thirty years the photograph remained little known, until the editors of Life issued it as a poster: the poster sold throughout the world in an edition of more than 400,000 copies, making Doisneau a photographer of worldwide fame.

Doisneau himself was not especially fond of the image, but explained the public's attention to it thus: "Why do so many people identify with this photograph? Because it is a symbol of a happy moment."

Until the 1990s the identity of the lovers captured in the photograph remained unknown. Then Doisneau found himself entangled in legal proceedings, and with a claim for 500,000 francs, moreover, on charges of violating the right to privacy. The Lavergne couple declared that they were the models for "The Kiss at the Hôtel de Ville". But not only they: another woman also claimed to be the one captured in the photograph. When Françoise Delbart produced the original print, numbered and signed by the artist's own hand, it became clear that her rivals in the suit were impostors. She asked for compensation of 100,000 francs. Robert Doisneau confirmed that he had indeed photographed her. Françoise Bornet had been a budding actress and had found her way into the frame together with her boyfriend Jacques Carteaud, who had, as it happens, declined to take part in the proceedings and to demand compensation.

In the end the court upheld the claim of none of the three plaintiffs: the Lavergnes failed to prove that they had been Doisneau's models, while, since Françoise Delbart's face cannot be seen, she could not lay claim to rights in the image. But in 2005 Françoise put the original print up for auction and sold it for a fantastic 185,000 euros.