The remarkable story behind the kiss photo that melted hearts - and what happened to the 'happy' couple

Daily Mail​

13-05-2025

It was a scene that melted hearts all over the world - a besotted couple in a clinch in the city of love.
But Robert Doisneau's Le Baiser de l'Hôtel de Ville (The Kiss at City Hall) was not all that it seemed.
For Francoise Delbart and her lover Jacques Carteaud were not being spontaneous on that day in Paris in 1950.
Instead, Doisneau had gotten permission to photograph the aspiring actors in romantic poses in different locations after seeing them kissing.
The shoot was commissioned by American magazine Life to show the return of romance to post-war Paris.
The black and white shot subsequently appeared in the popular magazine but was then forgotten until 1986, when a poster company re-discovered it and turned it into a global hit.
By the 1990s, it adorned hundreds of thousands of posters, as well as postcards and even tea towels and chocolate boxes.
Now, the image is set to appear among 400 of Doisneau's most striking works in an exhibition at Paris's Maillol Museum.
The images have been selected from around 450,000 that the photographer took during his career.
Ms Delbart, who died aged 93 on Christmas Day in 2023, was a 20-year-old when Doisneau photographed her.
The identity of the couple in the Kiss at City Hall remained a mystery for decades.
Many believed that Doisneau had randomly snapped a romantic pair.
A series of couples came forward to claim they were the lovers in the image.
Among them were Jeal-Louis and Denise Lavergne, who filed a suit in 1992.
That claim prompted Ms Delbart to come forward with a signed original print from Doisneau, proving she was the woman in the photo.
Furious, she also took legal action and demanded Fr100,000 as a share of the profits generated by the use of the image.
Although a court rejected both suits, Doisneau confirmed that Ms Delbart and Mr Carteaud had been the lovers and that they had willingly posed for him.
He said before he died in 1994: 'I would never have dared to photograph people like that. Lovers kissing in the street, those couples are rarely legitimate.'
Ms Delbart's romance with Mr Carteaud did not last long. She later said: 'Jacques looked a bit like Burt Lancaster. We split up when he met someone else and we lost touch.'
He went on to become a wine producer and died in 2006.
Ms Delbart, who appeared in several France films in the 1950s and 1960s, married Alain Bornet, a director and screenwriter, in 1962.
The couple had no children and Mr Bornet died a decade ago.
Ms Delbart sold her original print of the famous picture for €155,000 in 2005.
She said in 2022: 'I was with my boyfriend. We didn't stop kissing … Robert Doisneau asked us to pose for him.
'We did a series of snapshots. They appeared in Life magazine but no one paid attention.'
The exhibition at the Maillol Museum is being curated by Doisneau's daughter, Francine Deroudille.
She said the chosen works 'offer a social commentary on a harsh and unforgiving world and capture a wide range of human experiences', the Times reported.
Doisneau had a difficult childhood, with his mother dying when he was seven and his father having been killed in the First World War.
Left an orphan, he was raised by an aunt.
Doisneau was educated at a craft school and went on to be hired as a photographer at the Renault car factory in Paris.
But he was sacked for lateness and for falsifying time cards. After the Second World War, he got a job working for Vogue as a fashion photographer.