Henri Cartier-Bresson - Photographs New York Wednesday, October 9, 2024 | Phillips
  • Condition Report

  • Description

    View our Conditions of Sale.

  • Provenance

    Acquired from the photographer via Helen Wright, as agent, New York

  • Literature

    Cartier-Bresson, The World of Henri Cartier-Bresson, pl. 22
    Bibliothèque nationale de France, De qui s'agit-il?, p. 77
    Centre Pompidou, Henri Cartier-Bresson: L’exposition, p. 18
    Chéroux, Henri Cartier-Bresson: Here and Now, pl. 62
    Chéroux, Aperture Masters of Photography: Henri Cartier-Bresson, p. 19
    Chéroux, Discoveries: Henri Cartier-Bresson, n.p.
    Clair, Henri Cartier-Bresson: Europeans, p. 22
    Galassi, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Early Work, p. 100
    Galassi, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century, p. 89
    Montier, Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Artless Art, pl. 77
    B. Newhall and Kirstein, The Photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson, p. 25
    Steidl, Henri Cartier-Bresson Scrapbook, pl. 10
    Thames & Hudson, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Image and The World, pl. 76
    Thames & Hudson, Henri Cartier-Bresson: Photographer, pl. 13
    The Art Institute of Chicago, Photographs from the Julien Levy Collection, Starting with Atget, pl. 34

  • 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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203

Hyères, France

1932
Gelatin silver print, printed later.
9 5/8 x 14 1/8 in. (24.4 x 35.9 cm)
Signed in ink in the margin.

Estimate
$12,000 - 18,000 

Place Advance Bid
Contact Specialist

Sarah Krueger
Head of Department, Photographs
skrueger@phillips.com

 

Vanessa Hallett
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Chairwoman, Americas
vhallett@phillips.com

Photographs

New York Auction 9 October 2024