Henri Cartier-Bresson - Photographs New York Tuesday, October 1, 2019 | Phillips

Photographs

New York Auction 1 October 2019

  • Literature

    Clair, Henri Cartier-Bresson: Europeans, p. 192
    Simon & Schuster, The People of Moscow, pl. 133

  • 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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Property of a Private Collection, California

35

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Swan Lake, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, USSR

1954
Gelatin silver print, printed later.
11 3/4 x 17 1/2 in. (29.8 x 44.5 cm)
Signed in ink and copyright credit blindstamp in the margin.

Estimate
$12,000 - 18,000 

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Photographs

New York Auction 1 October 2019