Henri Cartier-BressonHenri Cartier-Bresson -- Barrio Chino, Barcelona
About the Item
- Creator:Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908 - 2004, French)
- Dimensions:Height: 22.05 in (56 cm)Width: 14.89 in (37.8 cm)
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:BRUCE, AU
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1918213213662
Henri Cartier-Bresson
The late photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson spent his long and varied career traveling the world and capturing images of everyone from children to cultural icons.
Beautiful but unsentimental street photography of children was one of the surprises offered by the sweeping survey “The World of Henri Cartier-Bresson,” at Peter Fetterman Gallery, in Santa Monica, California, in 2021. Some of the images are iconic, like Cartier-Bresson’s historic 1950s photographs for Life magazine of a newly Communist China and his portraits of cultural lions like Henri Matisse, Alberto Giacometti and Samuel Beckett. But nearly half the images, Fetterman said, were printed specifically at the gallery’s request and had not been widely exhibited or published.
One of the most striking discoveries was a 1954 image of five Russian girls standing in second position at a wrought-iron-and-wood ballet barre. The coolly elegant blond girl closest to the camera looks no more than 10 or 12 years old, but her calf muscles are as defined as those of an adult track star. “Rue Mouffetard, Paris,” from 1954, captures a boy grinning from ear to ear as he walks along a city street toward the lens — and presumably toward home — carrying with chin jutted out and visible pride a wine bottle under each arm. This picture, in which all elements conspire to highlight the boy’s swagger (notice the girls noticing the boy), is an illustration of capturing “the decisive moment,” which Cartier-Bresson famously defined and which modernists took as the ultimate goal of photography, although others later were more skeptical.
Born in 1908 in Chanteloup-en-Brie, France, the oldest of five children, Cartier-Bresson studied art and literature in school, refusing to join his father’s prosperous textile business. In 1931, he traveled to Africa to hunt wild game and found that he preferred a different kind of shoot: taking pictures with a small box camera.
On his return to France, Cartier-Bresson bought a Leica with a 50mm lens — the camera he called the “extension of my eye” and used for decades. He soon began working as a photojournalist, traveling the globe to capture everyday moments as well as some of the defining political events of the 20th century, from Gandhi’s funeral in 1948 and the fall of the Kuomintang in China in 1949 to the student uprising in Paris in 1968.
Cartier-Bresson was himself caught up in conflict. A French army officer during World War II, he was detained as a prisoner of war by the Nazis, prompting rumors he’d been killed. His photography was taken seriously enough at this time that the Museum of Modern Art in New York began preparing what it believed would be a posthumous retrospective of his work. The show took place in 1947, when the photographer was abundantly alive and well, and busy cofounding the great photo agency Magnum. MoMA has been a guardian and champion of his work ever since.
Find original Henri Cartier-Bresson black-and-white photography on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: BRUCE, Australia
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 7 days of delivery.
- Salvador Dali -- Return of Ulysses, from Hommage à HomèreBy Salvador DalíLocated in BRUCE, ACTSalvador Dalí Return of Ulysses, from Hommage à Homère, 1977 Photolithograph in colors on Arches paper Hand signed lower right Edition AP lower left Sheet size 76 x 56 cm Reference F...Category
1970s Prints and Multiples
MaterialsPhotogravure
- Andy Warhol -- Committee 2000By Andy WarholLocated in BRUCE, ACTAndy Warhol Committee 2000, 1982 Screenprint in colours on Lenox museum board Hand signed and numbered 186 / 2000 Sheet Size: 76 X 51 cm Printed by Rupert Jasen Smith, New York Publ...Category
1980s Prints and Multiples
MaterialsScreen
- John Gould - Elegant Tit from 'The Birds of Asia' C. 1850By John GouldLocated in BRUCE, ACTElegant Tit - John Gould lithograph with hand-coloured size 54 cm X 37 cm excellent Condition This remarkable ornithology lithograph with hand-finis...Category
Late 18th Century Animal Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- John Gould - Chestnut-breasted Tit from 'The Birds of Asia' C. 1850By John GouldLocated in BRUCE, ACTChestnut-breasted Tit - John Gould lithograph with hand-coloured size 54 cm X 37 cm excellent Condition This remarkable ornithology lithograph ...Category
Late 18th Century Animal Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Salvador Dali -- Celestial Elephant (Space Elephant), 1979By Salvador DalíLocated in BRUCE, ACTSalvador Dali Celestial Elephant (Space Elephant), 1979 Lithograph Hand signed lower right Numbered I 118/150 Image size: 58 x 43 cm Sheet size: 75...Category
1970s Prints and Multiples
MaterialsLithograph
- Salvador Dalí -- The sandman from the series "Contes d'Andersen", 1966By Salvador DalíLocated in BRUCE, ACTSalvador Dalí The sandman from the series "Contes d'Andersen", 1966 Signed low right Edition number: E.A. Literature Michler-Lopsinger 1171. Plate. 50 x 40 cm Frame 71.5 x 57 x ...Category
1960s Prints and Multiples
MaterialsLithograph
- Room with Trees and Vegetation, Interior Photography, Photomontage, EtchingLocated in AIX-EN-PROVENCE, FRWork : Original Photogravure / Etching, Handmade Artwork, Limited Edition of 15. The work is not framed. Medium : Photopolymer Gravure on Fine Art paper 300Gsm Artist : Suzanne Moxh...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Black and White Photography
MaterialsArchival Paper, Etching, Photogravure
- Interior with Telephone - Interior Photography, Photogravure, Film-makingLocated in AIX-EN-PROVENCE, FRHand Coloured Photopolymer Photogravure with chine colle and watercolour on Fine Art Paper. Contemporary Photography, Photomontages, Interior Spaces, Nature. Work Title : "Interior with Telephone" Artist : Suzanne Moxhay...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Color Photography
MaterialsArchival Paper, Photogravure, Watercolor
- Zitouna Mosque - Tunisiaca - Original Photolithograph by Bettino Craxi - 1994By Bettino CraxiLocated in Roma, ITZitouna Mosque - Tunisiaca is a wonderful black and white photolithograph on parchment, realized in 1994 by the Italian politician Bettino Craxi. A rare and precious specimen, an (u...Category
1990s Contemporary Figurative Prints
MaterialsPhotogravure
- Portrait of a Man - Phototype Print Late 19th CenturyLocated in Roma, ITPortrait of a Man is a wonderful phototype print realized in the second half of XIX century. Signed on the lower right margin. Fair conditions, with a browing of paper due to the t...Category
Late 19th Century Modern Figurative Prints
MaterialsPhotogravure
- Pegase Captif - after Odilon Redon - 1923By Odilon RedonLocated in Roma, ITPegase Captif is a prototype reproduction realized after Odilon Redon. They belong to the suite "Odilon Redon Peintre, Dessinateur et Graveur", published by Henri Felury in 1923. ...Category
1920s Symbolist Figurative Prints
MaterialsPhotogravure
- La Coda di Paglia - Rare Book illustrated by Mino Maccari - 1949By Mino MaccariLocated in Roma, ITLa Coda di Paglia is an original modern rare book illustrated by Mino Maccari (Siena, 1898 – Rome, 1989) and written by Alfonso Gatto in 1949. Original First Edition. Published by...Category
Mid-20th Century Modern More Art
MaterialsPaper, Photogravure