50 Masterworks to Celebrate 50 Years of Sotheby’s Photographs

50 Masterworks to Celebrate 50 Years of Sotheby’s Photographs

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 30. 'Barcelona, Spain', 1933.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

'Barcelona, Spain', 1933

Lot Closed

April 22, 01:05 PM GMT

Estimate

40,000 - 60,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Henri Cartier-Bresson

1908 - 2004

'Barcelona, Spain', 1933


Silver print, printed 1946. Inscribed in pencil on the reverse. Together with an authentication form number 280507/3 from the HCB Foundation signed by Martine Franck Cartier-Bresson.

8.2 x 12.2 cm (3 ¼ x 4 ¾ in.)


Barcelona, 1933, is a rare example of one of Cartier-Bresson’s early explorations with photography. In 1932, he purchased a 35mm Leica camera, something which he would quickly become inseparable from, referring to it as his notebook. The use of a small camera enhanced his ability to capture the quotidian, which is evident in Barcelona. The composition seems unbalanced, which is emphasised by the uneven angles and cropped figure in the foreground. The position of the man with his hand on his head looking down is juxtaposed against the figures on the wall with raised faces. Cartier-Bresson’s spontaneous yet artistic photographs, such as this one, played an important role in establishing photojournalism as an art form and ultimately garnered him international fame as one of the century’s greatest photographers.

Photographs, Sotheby's, May 29th, 2007, Lot 66
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Little, Brown and Company, 1979, pl. 151;
Galassi, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Early Work, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1987, p. 96; 
Henri Cartier-Bresson; The Man, the Image and the World, Thames and Hudson, 2003, ill. p. 105, pl. 117;
Henri Cartier-Bresson: Scrapbook: Photographs 1932-1946, Thames and Hudson, 2006,  cat. no. 93, p. 135.
Photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Museum of Modern Art, New York, February 5th – April 6th, 1947.