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Lot Essay
This version of Quai de Javal, Paris (see lot 8) differs slightly from the one typically seen at auction. Our image appears to have captured the men still in motion, perhaps immediately before setting down their materials and posing for the more familiar depiction of this group of ‘plasterers.’ This makes sense, as Cartier-Bresson’s contact sheets from the early 1940s show photojournalist intention—he took multiple shots of each scene for story-telling purposes instead of a single representative photograph (C. Cookman, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Man, The Image and The World; a Retrospective, London, p. 394). ‘Sometimes I think I have taken the master photo, but I go on shooting because I can never be sure how any event will turn out’ (H. Cartier-Bresson, The World of Henri Cartier Bresson, New York, 1952, p. [7]). Interestingly, the artist chose to reproduce our version in Minicam Photography, while the unchosen shot has become more widely used in his monographs. According to the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation, the only other known vintage print of lot 8 is held in MoMA’s collection, which only contributes to the significance of this fascinating, rare photograph.
Cartier-Bresson’s Scrapbook illustrates sixteen versions of children playing by the gaping hole of Seville, Spain, of which lot 7 is arguably most well-known and the composition most aligned with Cartier-Bresson’s compositional aesthetic. This was one of only fourteen carefully selected images the artist chose for his seminal retrospective exhibition ‘The Decisive Moment: Photographs, 1930-1957’ which toured the United States from 1957 to 1960.
Descended within the family of a Minicam Photography editor who acquired the photographs in the 1940s, both photographs are historically compelling and true rarities on the market. Nearly all of Cartier-Bresson’s work began as journalistic reportage for photography magazines, which provided the artist financial support, entry to notable events and people, and perhaps most importantly, an audience (C. Cookman, ibid., pp. 394, 395). In light of this often overlooked fact, these press prints represent the genesis of this legendary artist’s career and the core of his oeuvre.
Cartier-Bresson’s Scrapbook illustrates sixteen versions of children playing by the gaping hole of Seville, Spain, of which lot 7 is arguably most well-known and the composition most aligned with Cartier-Bresson’s compositional aesthetic. This was one of only fourteen carefully selected images the artist chose for his seminal retrospective exhibition ‘The Decisive Moment: Photographs, 1930-1957’ which toured the United States from 1957 to 1960.
Descended within the family of a Minicam Photography editor who acquired the photographs in the 1940s, both photographs are historically compelling and true rarities on the market. Nearly all of Cartier-Bresson’s work began as journalistic reportage for photography magazines, which provided the artist financial support, entry to notable events and people, and perhaps most importantly, an audience (C. Cookman, ibid., pp. 394, 395). In light of this often overlooked fact, these press prints represent the genesis of this legendary artist’s career and the core of his oeuvre.