Henri Cartier-Bresson - Photographs & Helmut Newton: Provocateur London Thursday, May 16, 2024 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Swann Auction Galleries, New York, Fine Photographs & The Photobook Library of Bill Diodato, 27 February 2014, lot 43

  • Literature

    P. Galassi, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Man, the Image and the World, London: Thames & Hudson, 2003, pl 107
    Henri Cartier-Bresson: Scrapbook, Photographs 1932-1946, London: Thames & Hudson, 2006, p. 111
    C. Chéroux, Henri Cartier-Bresson: Here and Now, London: Thames & Hudson, 2014, pl. 53, p. 77

  • 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

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, UK

89

Madrid, Spain

1933
Gelatin silver print, printed later.
24 x 36 cm (9 1/2 x 14 1/8 in.)
Signed in ink in the margin; signed and titled in pencil on the verso.

Estimate
£6,000 - 8,000 

Contact Specialist

Rachel Peart
Head of Department, London
RPeart@phillips.com
 

Yuka Yamaji
Head of Photographs, Europe
YYamaji@phillips.com
 

General Inquiries
+44 20 7318 4092

Photographs & Helmut Newton: Provocateur

London Auction 16 May 2024