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

    B. Newhall and Kirstein, The Photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson, p. 16
    Cartier-Bresson, The Decisive Moment, pl. 12
    Ewing and W. M. Hunt, The Unseen Eye: Photographs from the Unconscious, pp. 34-35
    Galassi, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Early Work, p. 107
    Galassi, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century, p. 95
    New York Graphic Society, Henri Cartier-Bresson: Photographer, pl. 20
    Steidl, Henri Cartier-Bresson Scrapbook, p. 131
    Thames & Hudson, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Man, the Image and the World, pl. 102
    Yale University Press, The Art of Photography, 1839-1989, pl. 280

  • 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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223

Valencia, Spain

1933
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 

Place Advance Bid
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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