As reported this Tuesday, the French newspaper Le Parisien, Françoise Bornetthe protagonist of the famous photograph of Robert Doisneau’s kiss next to the Paris City Hall, died this past December 25 at the age of 93 in Évreux (Normandy).

Bornet, her married name, went down in eternity for the black and white snapshot with which Robert Doisneau (1912-1994) captured her kissing her then partner, Jacques Corteaux, a drama student like her, in an emblematic place in the French capital. It was in 1959 when she was just 20 years old. The effects of the post-war period were still latent, as reflected by the attire of passers-by.

‘Life’ magazine had commissioned Doisneau to report on the lovers of paris and, at first, photography was forgotten. Bornet and that young man broke off their relationship and Bornet continued in the theater, where she performed works directed by François Périer and Pierre Brasseur, and would end up marrying who her loved ones consider to have been her great love, Alain Bornet.

It was already in the 80s, with the rise of the marketing sector, postcards, posters and mugs were the supports where that moment of passion of the couple was recorded as a symbol of romantic Paris.

Commercial exploitation also led Bornet to claim a percentage for the reproduction of his image in 1993. Justice, however, denied her the commission she requested, arguing that her face was not clearly recognized as it was obscured by Corteaux’s.