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Edward Quinn (1920-1997)

Edward Quinn, born 1920 in Dublin, Ireland, lived and worked as a photographer since the 1950’s on the Côte d’Azur, which was during the “golden fifties” the playground of the celebrities from the world of show biz, art and business. The rich and the famous came to the French Riviera to relax. But the movie stars knew how much their off-screen image mattered and Quinn was at the right place at the right time and was able to get spontaneous and enchanting images which capture the charm, sophistication and chic of this legendary era. Amongst a great number of celebrities photographed by Quinn and worth mention are Grace Kelly, Brigitte Bardot, Marlon Brando, Sophia Loren, Aristotle Onassis and Winston Churchill.

In 1951, Edward Quinn met and photographed Pablo Picasso for the first time. Their friendship lasted until Picasso’s death in 1973. This encounter with Picasso was greatly influential to Quinn himself and to his subsequent work, as Quinn is the author of several books and films about Picasso.

Since the 1960’s Quinn concentrated his work on artists, amongst them Max Ernst, Alexander Calder, Francis Bacon, Salvador Dali and David Hockney. In the late 1980’s an robust relationship, similar to his friendship with Picasso, linked Quinn to Georg Baselitz.

“Quinn was a very stubborn Irishman who knew what he wanted in life”, one of his painter friends said. No doubt, this characteristic helped him a great deal in his work.

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