Slim Aarons
Hôtel du Cap Eden-Roc Pool, Estate Edition
1976

Name: Hôtel du Cap Eden-Roc Pool, Estate Edition
Brand: Slim Aarons
Price: 7020 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Slim Aarons' 1976 photograph of bathers at the Hôtel du Cap Eden-Roc in Antibes, France, is a masterful capture of vintage glamour and the epitome of Mediterranean elegance. This iconic image, steeped in the lore of the French Riviera, juxtaposes the serene turquoise pool with the rugged beauty of the coastline, creating a visual dialogue between nature and human ingenuity. The composition, featuring sunbathers in minimal swimwear against a backdrop of majestic rocks and distant mountains, evokes a timeless sense of leisure and luxury. Aarons' lens immortalizes a moment in time where the world's elite converge to bask in the sun-drenched splendor of this legendary retreat. The Hôtel du Cap Eden-Roc, made famous by F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender is the Night," has long been a sanctuary for the titans of literature, film, art, music, politics, and high society. This photograph not only captures the physical allure of the locale but also its storied history as a playground for the influential and the illustrious, which includes figures from literature and music (Cole Porter, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Stefan Zweig, Noël Coward), film (Marlene Dietrich, Alain Delon, Elizabeth Taylor, who brought all of her husbands there, and every Hollywood A-lister in town for Cannes), art (Chagall, Picasso, Matisse), music (John and Yoko, Jane and Serge, Ella Fitzgerald), politics (Churchill, De Gaulle, the Kennedys), and high society (the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson). Aarons' work, with its precise attention to color and composition, invites collectors to own a piece of this casual glamor, where every detail speaks to a legacy of opulence and sophistication. Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons Estate. Certificate of Authenticity included. Hôtel du Cap Eden-Roc, 1976 (Printed Later) Slim Aarons Estate Edition 6 sizes available Framing options available Over the course of a career lasting half a century, Slim Aarons (1916-2006) portrayed high society, aristocracy, authors, artists, business icons, the celebrated and their milieu. In doing so, he captured a golden age of wealth, privilege, beauty and leisure that occurred alongside—but quite separate from—the cultural and political backdrop of the second half of the Twentieth Century. The Slim Aarons Estate has released the limited Estate edition as a Lambda print, which is a modern c-type prints. They have chosen Lambda prints for their sharpness, clarity, colour saturation and quality, compared to archival inkjet prints. Lambda printing gives true continuous tone. Photograph is unframed Slide show includes a close-up of the Slim Aarons estate's stamp. Collector will get the next number in the edition * Undercurrent Projects is pleased to offer the entire archive of the Slim Aarons Estate, offering the official Slim Aarons Estate Edition (only offered in this edition of 150). Please contact us for additional photographs from Slim Aarons * Antibes is a resort town between Cannes and Nice on the French Riviera (Côte d’Azur). It’s known for its old town enclosed by 16th-century ramparts with the star-shaped Fort Carré. This overlooks luxury yachts moored at the Port Vauban marina. The forested Cap d’Antibes peninsula, dotted with grand villas, separates Antibes from Juan-les-Pins, a chic resort with buzzing nightlife and the Jazz à Juan music festival. Increasingly known for his influence, Aarons's casually glamorous jetset aesthetic can be seen today in fashion, art, and celebrity photography. He's also been credited with inspiring the sun-soaked, escapist style of top Instagram influencers. Reference: "Dive in: how Slim Aarons art directed the poolside summer. French brand Maje are the latest label to take inspiration from Slim Aarons’ pictures of the jetset on holiday.” Internal: Vintage Slim Aarons, Vintage Hotel du Cap Eden-Roc photograph, Vintage Antibes, Midcentury modern photograph, Vintage Glamour, Poolside Glamour, Vintage Poolside, Vintage French Riviera photograph, Coastal Poolside, Blue Green and Sunshine, fashion: bikinis, briefs and topless sunbathers

Creator:

Slim Aarons (1916-2006, American)

Creation Year:

1976

Dimensions:

Height: 60 in (152.4 cm)Width: 40 in (101.6 cm)

Medium:

Lambda

Movement & Style:

Realist

Period:

1970-1979

Framing:

Framing Options Available

Condition:

Gallery Location:

Los Angeles, CA

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU148579062

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Slim Aarons

American photographer Slim Aarons captured the 20th century’s international jet set — U.S. socialites, European royalty, Hollywood stars — at play in sun-kissed locales like Monaco, Saint-Tropez and Palm Beach, as well as other luxurious settings around the globe.

Committed to eschewing makeup and artificial lighting, Aarons created images that are at once candid and polished, combining the relaxed posture of his subjects, who trusted him to document their lives, with the visual sharpness of a seasoned art director. Having gotten his start taking pictures for the U.S. military magazine Yank during World War II, he contributed over the course of his career to Life, Town and Country and Holiday magazines and published several books.

Aarons was born in Manhattan in 1916. He joined the army at 18, shooting military maneuvers at West Point before serving as a combat photographer, for which he was awarded a Purple Heart. After the war, he moved to California and began snapping socialites and movie stars. In the 1950s, he opened a bureau for Life magazine in Rome, where he took pictures capturing the postwar scene. Aarons was always able to win the trust of his elite subjects, who saw him as close to a peer, rather than a paparazzo. In a 2002 interview with The Independent, he remarked, ''I knew everyone. They would invite me to one of their parties because they knew I wouldn't hurt them. I was one of them.'' This access allowed Aarons to document the rich and famous with their guard down, reading newspapers and magazines, talking on the phone, relaxing by the pool, and chatting with friends. The 1957 photograph The Kings of Hollywood, for example, which won him wide acclaim, shows Clark Gable, Van Heflin, Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart laughing together as they celebrate New Year’s Eve.

Many of Aarons’s best-known images involve games and sports. In the 1972 Poolside Backgammon, two young women play the board game of the title against the backdrop of a majestic Acapulco estate. In 1958’s Cannes Watersports, a couple attempts to glide across the Golfe de la Napoule on Jet Skis, one expertly and one hanging on for dear life. And in Penthouse Pool, shot in Athens in 1961, a young woman wearing a yellow bathing cap smiles coyly at the camera, surrounded by friends and brightly colored seat cushions, with the Acropolis faintly visible in the background. Among Aarons’s books are 1974’s A Wonderful Time: An Intimate Portrait of the Good Life, and its 2003 sequel, Once Upon a Time. His final book, A Place in the Sun, was published in 2005, one year before his death.

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