Henri Cartier-Bresson - ITALIA Theme Sale London Tuesday, June 29, 2010 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Acquired directly from the artist

  • Literature

    Henri Cartier-Bresson: Photographe, Paris: Delpire, 1979, pl. 101; P. Galassi et al., Henri Cartier-Bresson: The man, the image and the world, London: Thames & Hudson, 2003, p. 98

  • Artist Biography

    Henri Cartier-Bresson

    French • 1908 - 2004

    Candidly capturing fleeting moments of beauty among the seemingly ordinary happenings of daily life, Henri Cartier-Bresson's work is intuitive and observational. Initially influenced by the Surrealists' "aimless walks of discovery," he began shooting on his Leica while traveling through Europe in 1932, revealing the hidden drama and idiosyncrasy in the everyday and mundane. The hand-held Leica allowed him ease of movement while attracting minimal notice as he wandered in foreign lands, taking images that matched his bohemian spontaneity with his painterly sense of composition.

    Cartier-Bresson did not plan or arrange his photographs. His practice was to release the shutter at the moment his instincts told him the scene before him was in perfect balance. This he later famously titled "the decisive moment" — a concept that would influence photographers throughout the twentieth century. 

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137

Midnight Mass, Scanno, Abruzzo, Italy

1953
Gelatin silver print, printed c.1950s.
24.8 x 18.1 cm (9 3/4 x 7 1/8 in).
Copyright credit and ‘Magnum Complimentary Print’ stamps, annotated ‘Europeens 74’ in an unidentified hand in ink and pencil on the verso.

Estimate
£6,000 - 8,000 

ITALIA Theme Sale

30 June 2010
London