--- description: A retrospective opens in Paris title: Discover the Genius of Philippe Halsman's Surrealist Portraits image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte193e61a6cdebae6/69885cc9f887dc427fe91925/150727-philippe-halsman-02.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) ## LightBox Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Discover the Genius of Philippe Halsman's Surrealist Portraits by [Carole Naggar](/author/carole-naggar/) ## Carole Naggar Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 20, 2015 8:00 AM CUT  Dali Atomicus, 1948. Dali Atomicus, 1948.Philippe Halsman Archive—Magnum Photos by [Carole Naggar](/author/carole-naggar/) ## Carole Naggar Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 20, 2015 8:00 AM CUT When he said “Jump!” they all did: Groucho Marx and Bob Hope, Marilyn Monroe and Richard Nixon, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, and even the Ford matriarch, Mrs. Edsel Ford. And we all know his picture _Dali Atomicus_ where a crazed-looking Salvador Dali is suspended in mid-air together with three lounging cats, a chair and a long, S-shaped stream of water. Halsman was persistent: the picture took 28 tries. “When you ask a person to jump,” he said “his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears.” Born Jewish in Riga, Latvia, in 1906, Philippe Halsman studied engineering but he became hooked on photography when he discovered his father’s old camera and the magic of the darkroom at age fifteen. After a tragic episode—while they were mountain climbing in the Austrian Alps, his father fell to his death and, he was falsely accused of his murder by an anti-Semitic police force, spending two years in prison—Halsman moved to Paris in 1932 and set up a portrait studio. He collaborated with _Vogue_, _Vu_ and _Voilà_ and photographed artists and writers such as Chagall, Gide, Le Corbusier and Malraux in a sharp, crisp, minimalist style different from the Pictorialism then in style. When Adolf Hitler’s troops invaded Paris in 1940, Halsman emigrated to New York and arrived with little more than his camera, a twin-lens reflex that he had designed himself. Unknown in America, his breakthrough came when he photographed a young model resting on the American flag: she became the face of Elizabeth Arden’s _Victory Red_ lipstick. More than a hundred covers of LIFE magazine by Halsman followed, featuring portraits of celebrities, intellectuals and politicians. Fascinated by Surrealism since his stay in Paris, he loved creating photomontages, such as his portrait of Hitchcock with a bird on his cigar, or the series he created during his thirty-year collaboration with Salvador Dali, including one striking picture where the background is a skull made up of nude, intertwined female bodies. ### LIFE Cover Portraits by Philippe Halsman  October 16, 1944, cover of LIFE magazine featuring Lauren Bacall. Philippe Halsman—Life Magazine  May 22, 1950, cover of LIFE magazine featuring the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Philippe Halsman—Life Magazine  August 13, 1951, cover of LIFE magazine featuring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Philippe Halsman—Life Magazine  September 3, 1951, cover of LIFE magazine featuring Gina Lollobrigida. Philippe Halsman—Life Magazine  December 17, 1951, cover of LIFE magazine featuring Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. Philippe Halsman—Life Magazine  April 7, 1952, cover of LIFE magazine featuring Marilyn Monroe. Philippe Halsman—Life Magazine  November 2, 1953, cover of LIFE magazine featuring Winston Churchill. Philippe Halsman—Life Magazine  April 26, 1954, cover of LIFE magazine featuring Grace Kelly. Philippe Halsman—Life Magazine His dark youth seemed all but forgotten. Intense energy, optimism, and often humor shone through Halsman’s unconventional portraits. He prided himself on his ability to reveal his sitter’s character: “It must be accomplished,” he said, “by provoking the victim, amusing him with jokes, lulling him with silence, or asking impertinent questions which his best friend would be afraid to voice.” This approach is what makes Halsman’s portraits so contemporary, as if untouched by time. _Philippe Halsman’s retrospective_ **Etonnez-moi** _( Surprise Me) opens on Oct. 20 at the Musée du Jeu de Paume in Paris._ **_Carole Naggar_** _is a photography historian and poet._  Expérimentation pour un portrait de femme 1931-1940. Philippe Halsman Archive—Magnum Photos  Dali Atomicus, 1948. Philippe Halsman Archive—Magnum Photos  Jean Cocteau, l'artiste multidisciplinaire, 1949. Philippe Halsman Archive—Magnum Photos  Philippe Halsman - Autoportrait, 1950. Philippe Halsman Archive—Magnum Photos  Marilyn Monroe in her apartment, 1952. Philippe Halsman Archive—Magnum Photos  Ballet aquatique, 1953. Philippe Halsman Archive—Magnum Photos  Audrey Hepburn, 1955. Philippe Halsman Archive—Magnum Photos  Brigitte Bardot, 1955. Philippe Halsman Archive—Magnum Photos  Salvador Dalí on CBS The Morning Show, 1956. Philippe Halsman Archive—Magnum Photos  Philippe Halsman and Marilyn Monroe, 1959, photo by Yvonne Halsman. Philippe Halsman Archive—Magnum Photos  Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren for the promotion of The Birds, 1962. Philippe Halsman Archive—Magnum Photos  Muhammad Ali, 1963. Philippe Halsman Archive—Magnum Photos ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3974905/discover-the-genius-of-philippe-halsmans-surrealist-portraits/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3974905/discover-the-genius-of-philippe-halsmans-surrealist-portraits/"},"headline":"Discover the Genius of Philippe Halsman's Surrealist Portraits","datePublished":"2015-10-20T08:00:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:40:10.437Z","description":"A retrospective opens in Paris","url":"https://time.com/3974905/discover-the-genius-of-philippe-halsmans-surrealist-portraits/","keywords":["LightBox","photography","exhibition","On Our Radar"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte193e61a6cdebae6/69885cc9f887dc427fe91925/150727-philippe-halsman-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Carole Naggar","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/carole-naggar/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte193e61a6cdebae6/69885cc9f887dc427fe91925/150727-philippe-halsman-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Dali Atomicus, 1948","caption":"Dali Atomicus, 1948","creditText":"Philippe Halsman Archive—Magnum Photos","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-lightbox/","name":"LightBox"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3974905/discover-the-genius-of-philippe-halsmans-surrealist-portraits/","name":"Discover the Genius of Philippe Halsman's Surrealist Portraits"}}]}] ```