Photographs, Including Works from the Collection of Ernesto Esposito
Photographs, Including Works from the Collection of Ernesto Esposito
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Florence, Italie
Lot Closed
November 16, 12:03 PM GMT
Estimate
30,000 - 50,000 EUR
Lot Details
Description
Henri Cartier-Bresson
1908 - 2004
Florence, Italie
large-format gelatin silver print, with title and annotations in pencil, stamped 'Italie' four times and with reproduction rights and return delivery stamps on the reverse, 1933, printed in 1946-47
image: 25 by 35 cm (9⅞ by 13¾ in.)
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Henri Cartier-Bresson
1908 - 2004
Florence, Italie
tirage argentique au grand format, titré et annoté au crayon, timbré 'Italie' quatre fois, avec les tampons des instructions de publication et retour au verso, 1933, tirage de 1946-7
image: 25 x 35 cm (9⅞ x 13¾ in.)
Galerie Sylvain Calvier, Paris, 2007
Jean-Pierre Montier, Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Artless Art (Boston, 1996), p. 87
Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Man, Image and the World (New York, 2003), p. 126
Documentary and Anti-Graphic Photographs: Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans (Paris, 2004), p. 32
Henri Cartier-Bresson: Scrapbook, (New York, 2006), p. 99
Clément Chéroux, Henri Cartier-Bresson (Paris, 2013), p. 69
The present print of Florence, Italie was made in 1946-47 ahead of Henri Cartier-Bresson's 1947 retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson. At the time of this writing, this is the largest print of this image to have come to auction.
Florence, Italie was taken by Cartier-Bresson in 1932 during one of his first photographic expeditions through Italy, Spain, and Africa, when he produced some of his most recognizable photographs. This early work supports Cartier-Bresson’s reputation as one of the first photographers to incorporate abstraction in documentary photography. From the grid-like composition of the tables, to the blurred circular motion of the bicycle wheels, Cartier-Bresson was an expert in making everyday scenes appear surreal.
Another print of this image was exhibited in Documentary and Anti-Graphic Photographs: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, and Manuel Alvarez-Bravo at Julien Levy Gallery, New York, in 1935. Julien Levy Gallery was the first in the United States to promote Surrealism, and the first to exhibit Henri Cartier-Bresson photographs in New York.