- French artists Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe were step-sisters and lovers who moved to Jersey during the Occupation
- Under the pseudonyms Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore they took several pictures in the Island
- A collection of their work now has an international cult following and has been shown in New York, Sydney and Paris
- See more of their compelling black and white portraits below
A PHOTOGRAPHIC collection of work by two French artists with an international cult following is proving so popular around the world that its owner, Jersey Heritage, says it is one of the Island’s great cultural assets.
Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore were the pseudonyms of Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe, step-sisters and lovers from Nantes who moved to Jersey in 1937 where their resistance against the Germans during the Occupation led to their imprisonment and almost cost them their lives.
Jersey Heritage’s community learning director Louise Downey said that the collection, which the organisation owns, was in such demand that it has to turn down requests for loans.
‘We have to be very careful in terms of exposure, so it is only allowed out of store for three months every year.
‘The photographs are really compelling self-portraits and quite imaginative, and so contemporary-looking that they could have been taken now.’
Since Jersey Heritage acquired the collection 20 years ago, it has been exhibited in New York, Sydney, Denmark, Norway, Paris, Barcelona and Valencia.
Most recently it was exhibited at London’s Southbank as part of the Women in the World exhibition.
Items are currently on loan to the Tate St Ives, Bow Arts Nunnery Gallery in London and, from later this year, the Guernsey Museum.
Jersey Heritage opened its own exhibition last month, ‘Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore – A Life Defiant’.
At the time, Jersey Heritage director Jon Carter described the collection as one of the Island’s greatest cultural assets and an ‘ambassador’ for Jersey in the world of art.
Cahun and Moore worked together as photographers and writers in France between the two World Wars, defying society’s ideas of gender and sexuality, and were left-wing activists who protested against anti-semitism and fascism.
In 1937, they fled the rise of Hitler and moved to Jersey, having holidayed here since 1922.
The women, whose real names were Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe, were lovers and moved to Jersey from Paris in 1937.
In the French capital, they had been leading figures in the city’s vibrant art movement.
During the Occupation, they risked their lives to spread anti-Nazi propaganda and sow the seeds of dissent among German troops.
Among other acts of defiance, they produced printed flyers containing snippets transcribed from BBC news reports about Nazi crimes and defeats.
The flyers also contained anti-war poetry and writing critical of Hitler’s regime.
The couple distributed the propaganda where German soldiers and Islanders would find them.
THE love story of two of Jersey’s most remarkable wartime heroines inspired an American student to travel thousands of miles to the Island in 2012.
Anike Eide, who was studying for an MA in writing at Hamline University in St Paul, Minnesota, flew over to see the places so loved by Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore.
Miss Eide said: ‘I first came across the image of Claude Cahun during a Women in Art History course and immediately fell in love with her photography.
‘I became fascinated with her self-portraiture work. Once I began doing the research behind the photographs, the incredible story of these two women and their bravery, artistic accomplishment and powerful, yet somewhat private, way of being in the world unfolded.
‘Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore were lovers, stepsisters and artistic partners for over forty years and they led intriguing lives.
‘Their resistance work during the Nazi Occupation was heroic. The Nazis believed there was a large uprising forming against them because of Claude and Marcel’s anti-Nazi propaganda – really, it was two middle-aged women with a lot of courage.’
She added: ‘I knew I wanted to go to Jersey to see the bay they would wake up to every morning, where so many of Claude’s photographs were taken. I knew the Island would hold some answers to questions I’ve always had about their lives and I was determined to find them.
‘I was curious as to why Claude and Marcel made the move from Paris to Jersey, considering that the vibrant artistic community they were involved in, as well as most of their friends, was in France. I was also interested in the fact that there was a clear shift in Cahun’s photographic work when she moved to Jersey.
