Bauhaus Effects: Florence Henri and Modernist Photography in Paris

The Bauhaus spoiled Paris for her, wrote painter Florence Henri to her friend Margarete Schall in August 1927. She wanted to return, not only to her friends, but also for the “wonderful Bauhaus modern conveniences.” To counter the pall of Parisian anachronism, Henri purchased a collection of Bauhaus furniture, including a nickel-plated lamp and glass teapot by Wilhelm Wagenfeld and armchairs and two tables in chromium-plated metal by Marcel Breuer. Not only did Henri import Bauhaus design into Paris, she also carried with her the genesis of a new career in photography. Within a scant year, Henri was to develop a photographic practice that catapulted her into the vanguard of European modernist discourse and secured her place in history. Importantly, the Bauhaus was the catalyst for transformation. This chapter will focus on the reverberations of Bauhaus ideas and things in Henri's photographs, a subject which has not been systematically explored. Focusing on Henri's compositional use of the reflective doublings seen in Lucia Moholy's practice, the constructivist compositions preferred by László Moholy-Nagy, the optical illusions courted by Josef Albers, the formal possibilities of Breuer's tubular steel chairs, Bauhaus advertising tactics, and the mirrored balls of Bauhaus experiment, this chapter maps the material and conceptual terms of Henri's bequest to modernist visual culture with the provocations of the Bauhaus at its center.