Henri Cartier-Bresson - Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Eye of the Century New York Tuesday, December 12, 2017 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Acquired directly from the artist

  • Literature

    Cartier-Bresson, The Decisive Moment, pl. 30
    Cartier-Bresson, The World of Henri Cartier-Bresson, pl. 47
    Cartier-Bresson, Henri Cartier-Bresson: À Propos de Paris, pl. 78
    Bibliothèque nationale de France, De qui s'agit-il?, p. 69
    Chéroux, Aperture Masters of Photography: Henri Cartier-Bresson, p. 51
    Galassi, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century, p. 256
    Montier, Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Artless Art, pl. 272
    B. Newhall and Kirstein, The Photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson, p. 45
    Thames & Hudson, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Image and The World, pl. 64
    Thames & Hudson, Henri Cartier-Bresson: Photographer, pl. 99

  • Catalogue Essay

    "Cardinal Pacelli visited, and the throngs were outside Sacré-Cœur to see him, touch him if possible. The people were shouting 'Vive Dieu.' From where I stood in the crowd I could see only the top of his head, so I held my camera high above me and shot. (Note: this is the only picture in the book not taken with a Leica. It was taken with a Gaumont 9 x 12 cm on a glass plate)." The Decisive Moment

  • 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. 

    View More Works

27

Cardinal Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII), Montmartre, Paris

1938
Gelatin silver print, printed later.
11 3/4 x 17 5/8 in. (29.8 x 44.8 cm)
Signed in ink and copyright credit blindstamp in the margin.

Estimate
$6,000 - 8,000 

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Rachel Peart
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+1 212 940 1246

Sarah Krueger
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Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Eye of the Century

New York Auction 12 December 2017