hcb catalogue

8/18/2019 HCB Catalogue

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HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON

DECISIVE MOMENTS


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The Fine Art Society

Peter Fetterman Gallery

148 New Bond Street · London

+44 (0)20 7629 5116

For sales enquiries

please contact Rowena Morgan-Cox

[email protected]


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HENRI CARTIER-BRESSONDECISIVE MOMENTS



·


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Matisse’s cover design for the first edition of Cartier-Bresson’s Images à la Sauvette [The Decisive Moment], published by Verve, Paris 1952

Henri Cartier-Bresson was one of the greatestartists of the twentieth century. In a long life heturned photo journalism into an art form, andcreated many of the images by which his time is

remembered.

This exhibition, which includes many of hisfinest photographs, is a collaboration with PeterFetterman, an obsessive fan of Cartier-Bresson,and a dealer in photographs for over forty years.The prints in the show were made for Peter by thephotographer towards the end of his life, and are of

exceptional quality.One of the most successful exhibitions in The

Fine Art Society’s history was that of Herbert Pont-ing’s photographs of the Antarctic, taken on Scott’sexpedition, held in our galleries just over a centuryago. Ponting and Henri Cartier-Bresson share the

Foreword The Fine Art Society

quality of originality in their vision: havingcreated photographs of their chosen subjects,all subsequent attempts are judged against theirachievements.

Although he largely worked as a photojournal-

ist, Henri Cartier-Bresson became an accomplishedportrait photographer, but most especially one whocaptured images in everyday life which are completeand emotionally satisfying.

The photographs are free of artificial effects,spontaneous; they make icons of scenes that the

rest of the world would scarcely notice. His instinc-tive sense of design combined with his ability torecognise a subject that would never lose its powerto captivate the viewer, as his photograph of twoplump couples having a picnic on the banks of theMarne, continues to demonstrate.


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Sam Tata Portrait of Henri Cartier-Bresson 1940Gelatin silver print, signed on verso in ink · 11 x 14 in · 28 x 35.5 cm© The Estate of Sam Tata

Henri Cartier-Bresson was my photographic hero,the man who inadvertently changed my life when Ipurchased (almost by accident) a print of his image Srinagar 1948 [cat.21] almost forty years ago. This

‘decisive moment’ sent me on a new personal and

professional path which continues still today.The images you see before you are a selection

from an almost forty year journey of collecting hiswork. Call it a kind of obsession, malady, if youwill. From looking at photographs seriously forthis amount of time I instinctively know there are

good photographers, even great ones, but Henritranscended ‘greatness’ and is in a class of his own.I had the great honor of working with him closelyfor over 14 years until his passing in 2004. Manyof the images were personal requests, little ‘gems’in his body of work that he had never printed andsigned before as ‘collector prints’.

I remember sitting with him once in his apart-ment in Paris thumbing through a copy of The

People of Moscow , one of my favorite of his out-of-print books. There is an image in it of some BolshoiBallet dancers in the top of the frame with membersof the orchestra on the lower half of the frame beau-

tifully lit [cat.31].

The conversation went like this. ‘Henri, I lovethis image, I’ve never seen a print of it anywhere’I said. He replied ‘Well Peter, that is because noone has ever asked for one. It’s not important, justa snap shot.’ I responded ‘Well Henri, it may be asnap shot to you, but I think it is like a great Degas.

Will you please make me a couple of prints?’ Hereplied ‘Okay, if you insist I will oblige’.

And so it went on with many more discoveriesover the years. Collectors are only the temporarycustodians of the objects of their desire. The timehas come to share them with new friends in the cityof my birth, London. In this sense my journey has

come ‘Full Circle’, and is a testament to the powerof photography.

Foreword Peter Fetterman Gallery


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1 Behind the Gare St Lazare, Paris, France

Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with thephotographer’s blindstamp on recto20 x 16 in · 50.8 x 40.5 cm

All the photographs offered for sale are printsmade from the original negatives in the 1990s underthe direct supervision of H enri Cartier-Bresson.


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2 Hyères, The Var department, France



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3 Brussels, Belgium


4 Allée du Prado,

Marseilles, France

Gelatin silver print, signed inink with the photographer’sblindstamp on recto16 x 12 in · 40.5 x 30.5 cm


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5 Self-Portrait c.


6 Italy

Gelatin silver print, signedand inscribed in ink with thephotographer’s blindstamp on recto16 x 12 in · 40.5 x 30.5 cm


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7 Salerno, Italy


8 Roman Amphitheater, Valencia, Spain



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9 Madrid, Spain



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10 Alicante, Valencia Province, Spain


11 Calle Cuauhtemoctzin, Prostitutes, Mexico City, Mexico



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12 Hyde Park in the Grey Drizzle, London, England


13 Coronation of King

George VI, London



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14 Sunday on the Banks of the Marne, France

Gelatin silver print, signed in ink withphotographer’s blindstamp on recto16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm


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15 The Visit of Cardinal Pacelli, Montmartre, Paris


16 Albert Camus, Paris, France



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17 Henri Matisse, at his home villa Le Rêve, Vence, France



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18 Easter Sunday,

Harlem, New York,

USA


19 Natchez, Mississippi, USA

Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the photographer’sblindstamp on recto16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm


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20 Truman Capote, New Orleans, USA



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21 Jaipur, Rajasthan, India


22 Muslim women on the slopes of Hari Parbal Hill, Srinagar, Kashmir



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23 Shanghai, China



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24 Rice Fields in the Minangkabau Country, Sumatra, Indonesia



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25 Square of the Vert Galant and Pont-Neuf, Ile de la Cité, Paris


26 Schoolchildren looking

from the top of Notre-Dame

cathedral at the Seine River,

Paris, France –

Gelatin silver print, signed in inkwith photographer’s blindstampon recto20 x 16 in · 50.8 x 40.5 cm


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27 Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Munster, Ireland



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28 Scanno, Abruzzo, Italy



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29 Town of Briançon,

Hautes-Alpes, France


30 Torcello in the Venetian Lagoon, Venice, Ita ly



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31 Swan Lake, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, USSR



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32 Stade Dynamo, Moscow, Russia


33 Canteen for workers building the Hotel Metropole, Moscow,

Russia Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with thephotographer’s blindstamp on recto12 x 16 in · 30.5 x 40.5 cm


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34 Near Juvisy-sur-Orge, Essonne, France



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35 Jeronimos Monastery,

Lisbon, Portugal

Gelatin silver print, signed in inkwith the photographer’s blindstampon recto20 x 16 in · 50.8 x 40.5 cm

36 Bougival, Yvelines,

France



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37 Mass led by the

Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski and

the ordination of Catholic

priests, Warsaw, Poland


38 Rome, Italy



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39 A Transatlantic

Arriving in the Harbour,

New York City, USA


40 Times Square,

New Year’s Eve, Manha ttan,

NYC, USA



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41 Marilyn Monroe, during the filming of

The Misfits by John Huston, Nevada, USA



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42 The Palais Royal Gardens, Paris, France



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43 Alberto Giacometti,

Maeght Gallery, Paris,

France


44 Alberto Giacometti,

Rue d’Alésia, Paris,

France



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45 Island of Siphnos, Cyclades, Greece


46 Stud farm to the south of Budapest, Hungary



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47 A farewell service for the late actor Danjuro at the

Aoyama Funeral Hall, Tokyo, Japan


48 Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina, Yugoslavia



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49 Brie, France

Gelatin silver print, signed in ink withphotographer’s blindstamp on recto12 x 16 in · 30.5 x 40.5 cm

50 Near Cereste, Alpes de Haute-Provence, France


Published for the exhibition HenriCartier Bresson:


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Published for the exhibition Henri Cartier-Bresson:Decisive Moments held at The Fine Art Society, 148 New BondStreet, London 1, 6 to 29 October 2015

Catalogue works © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum PhotosCourtesy Fondation Henri Cartier-BressonCatalogue © The Fine Art Society, London, andPeter Fetterman Gallery, Santa Monica

978 1 907052 58 3

Designed and typeset by Dalrymple

Printed in Belgium by Albe De Coker

Front cover: Madrid, Spain 1933 [10]

Frontispiece: Henri Matisse, at his home villa Le Rêve,Vence, France 1944 [17]

Back cover: Shanghai, China 1949 [22]


148 New Bond Street · London

+44 (0)20 7629 5116 · [email protected]

Peter Fetterman GalleryBergamot Station2525 Michigan Avenue · Gallery 1Santa Monica · 90404+1 310 453 6463 · [email protected] www.peterfetterman.com


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