This December, Sotheby’s New York is delighted to present The World of Henri Cartier-Bresson: Photographs from the Personal Collection of Peter Fetterman. Highlighting six decades of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s impressive oeuvre, the 95 photographs featured in this auction include beloved images such as Behind the Gare Saint Lazare, Paris; Hyères, France; and Siphnos, Greece, among many others. Cartier-Bresson’s passion for photography was cemented in 1932 when he acquired a 35mm Leica, the handheld camera that revolutionized twentieth-century photography and freed him to photograph spontaneously anytime, anywhere. This manner of photographing ‘on the sly’ – his first book was called Images à la sauvette (1952), which roughly translates to ‘images on the sly’ – would become his trademark. For the rest of his illustrious career Cartier-Bresson traveled the world, making images that would leave an indelible mark on the history of photography.
Sotheby’s is honored to have been entrusted with this treasure trove of Cartier-Bresson photographs from the collection of Peter Fetterman, noted gallerist, collector, and longtime friend of the photographer. Nearly all photographs on offer were acquired directly from Cartier-Bresson by Mr. Fetterman. The auction will be open for bidding from December 9th to the 16th, and a public exhibition will be on view in our York Avenue galleries from December 11th to the 15th.
Henri Cartier-Bresson earned a large part of his living from fees associated with the reproduction of his images in the periodical press. Many of the images on offer in this auction were originally used to illustrate such articles – below are a few examples of those publications.
