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

  • Description

    View our Conditions of Sale.

  • Provenance

    The Photographers' Gallery, London, 1998

  • Literature

    Cartier-Bresson, The Decisive Moment, pl. 88
    Cartier-Bresson, The World of Henri Cartier-Bresson, pl. 168
    Bibliothèque nationale de France, De qui s'agit-il?, p. 263
    Chéroux, Henri Cartier-Bresson: Here and Now, pl. 361
    Chéroux, Aperture Masters of Photography: Henri Cartier-Bresson, p. 63, there titled Refugees Exercising in Kurukshetra Refugee Camp, Punjab, India
    Chéroux, Discoveries: Henri Cartier-Bresson, p. 66
    Galassi, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century, p. 257
    Montier, Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Artless Art, pl. 199, there titled Refugee camp, Kurukshetra, Punjab, 1947
    Thames & Hudson, Henri Cartier-Bresson: In India, pl. 11
    Thames & Hudson, Henri Cartier-Bresson: Photographer, pl. 83
    Viking, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Face of Asia, pp. 80-81

  • 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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225

Games in a Refugee Camp at Kurukshetra, Punjab, India

1947
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
$8,000 - 12,000 

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Sarah Krueger
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Photographs

New York Auction 9 October 2024