Henri Cartier-Bresson - Photographs New York Wednesday, April 6, 2022 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    From the artist to Igor Bakht
    Collection of G. Ray Hawkins, Los Angeles

  • Literature

    Galassi, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century, pp. 1, 156
    Montier, Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Artless Art, pl. 250

  • Catalogue Essay

    Igor Bakht, to whom this print is inscribed, was a master photographic printer, best known for his longtime collaboration with André Kertész and other photographers who valued the high quality of his work.

  • 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

163

Near Juvisy-sur-Orge, France

1955
Gelatin silver print, printed later.
9 5/8 x 14 1/8 in. (24.4 x 35.9 cm)
Signed, inscribed to Igor Bakht in ink and copyright credit blindstamp in the margin.

Estimate
$7,000 - 9,000 

Sold for $9,450

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Sarah Krueger
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Photographs

New York Auction 6 April 2022