Gifted by the artist to Hank Herny (Advertising Manager for Simmon-Omega); by descent to his son Private Collection, California Phillips, New York, 2 October 2012, lot 22
Literature
Bulfinch Press, Henri Cartier-Bresson: City and Landscapes, pl. 66 Montier, Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Artless Art, pl. 95
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.
1959 Gelatin silver print. 7 x 4 1/2 in. (17.8 x 11.4 cm) Signed and inscribed in ink on a placard; titled 'Palais Royal, Paris' and dated in an unidentified hand in pencil on the reverse of the mount.