Ingeborg de Beausacq - Brazil

Brazil

Ingeborg married Jean de Beausacq on her arrival in Rio de Janeiro September 23, 1939, and became a French countess by marriage.

The couple soon ran out of money and to earn their living, Ingeborg turned to photography and became the foremost photographer of Rio's and Sao Paulo's society children and beauties, among them the Comtesse de Paris. Thanks to people she met on board the Siqueira Campos which took her to Brazil, she could buy equipment on credit from Kodak: enlarger, view camera, a Bausch and Lomb portrait lens, etc. With the money she earned she rented an apartment on Avenida Atlantica, on the sea front. Finally she specialized in elegant woman portraits. She held exhibitions, among other spots at the Ministry of Education which was inaugurated by Moses, the head of the Associaçao Brazileira da Imprensa. In 1940-41, Louis Jouvet came to Rio with his troupe. He needed a photographer and engaged Ingeborg de Beausacq. She made a portrait of him which was displayed in the hall of his theatre in Paris. Ingeborg learned about her brother's death in Russia. He was 18 years old. Her mother also died in Berlin. She was 59.

Three years later, the marriage with Jean de Beausacq ended in separation since divorce did not exist in Brazil.

In 1942 Brazil declared war on Germany and the press ran an intensive anti-German campaign. People were arrested in the streets for being German. Ingeborg, stateless but considered as a German, working as a photographer but having no licence for it and no permission to work, only could hope to let the tempest pass over her head. She moved to Sao Paulo, waiting for the war to end.

In 1945-46, Ingeborg had a passionate love affair with Flavio de Carvalho, a famous Brazilian painter and architect.

Ingeborg wanted to go back to France but the French refused a visa on her stateless passport. She found a new supporter and friend, the U.S. Attaché Culturel who invited her to his house in Sao Paulo. Through him and his wife she met the American consul who offered her an emigration visa to New York. In September 1948 she embarked on a Moore McCormack ship sailing to New York.