Henri Cartier-Bresson

© Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos, Courtesy Peter Fetterman Gallery

The artist in 1930

© Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum photos, Collection Fondation HBC

From the Files

+ The auction record for Cartier-Bresson was set at Christie’s New York in April when a vintage gelatin silver print of Hyères, France, 1932, sold for $265,000(est. $60–90,000).

+ Even lesser-known Cartier-Bresson prints are being sought after by collectors.The Santa Monica dealer Peter Fetterman had an exhibit of Bresson’s work last spring called “Rarely Seen,” from which he sold a 1954 photograph of young Bolshoi ballerinas at the barre for $20,000.

+ Images à la sauvette, the title of his first book of photographs, published in1952, translates as “pictures on the run.” The English edition was titled The Decisive Moment, from a quote by the 17th-century cardinal de Retz. The phrase is inextricably linked with Cartier-Bresson.

+ A highlight of this month’s photography auctions is the artist’s Rue Mouffetard, Paris, 1954, at Christie’s New York October 13–14 (est. $15–$25,000).

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Although Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) epitomizedthe adventurous, itinerant photojournalist, he was also,by inclination and training, an artist. From the 1930s throughthe ’50s, the French photographer captured some of the mostimportant political and historical developments of the time, from the liberationof Paris to the collapse of the Nationalist regime in China. But the lyricism andpoetry of such images as Seville, 1933—a remarkable picture of children playing,one of them on crutches, viewed through a bombed-out wall—transcend theirdocumentary function. The Decisive Moment, the title of the English edition ofhis first book of photographs, published in 1952, reflects Cartier-Bresson’s almostuncanny ability to shoot an event at precisely the instant when the formal elementsfell beautifully into place. This talent is evident in one of his best-knownpictures, Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, 1932, of a man caught in midair as hejumps over a puddle, his reflection his perfect double. “He’s the master of streetphotography,” says the New York dealer Howard Greenberg, “and that’s a style of work that he was the first to make into real art.”

The son of a wealthy textile manufacturer, Cartier-Bresson studied paintingand traveled in the same Parisian circles as André Breton, soaking up the freespiritedethos of Surrealism. He acquired his first camera, a Leica, in 1931 and, a fewyears later, in 1935, exhibited his photographs at the influential Julien Levy Gallery,in New York. “Immediately, he was being accepted within a high-art context,”says Philippe Garner, the international head of photographs at Christie’s.

Earlier this year—the centenary of his birth—a record for his work was setwhen a gelatin silver print of Hyères, France, 1932,sold at Christie’s New York for $265,000,well above its high estimate of $90,000. Theimage is classic Cartier-Bresson: a shot of abicyclist taken from the top of a steep spiralstaircase, creating a complex geometry oflines and planes. “That was a highly desirable,beautiful print,” says Garner. “But Idon’t expect it to last too long as a record.There are works out there that could easilymake more.” Greenberg agrees that themarket has plenty of room to grow. He has sold vintageCartier-Bresson prints for between $100,000and $200,000 but comments, “I think the bar is nowhigher than that for the best ones.”

Cartier-Bresson’s best-known pictures, generallyfrom the 1930s and ’40s, are icons in the historyof photography. In addition to Hyères, France, hisnotable works include On the Banks of the Marne,1938, a view of French couples picnicking on theriverbank, and Valencia, 1933, an impressive feat ofcomposition and timing that shows a man lookingthrough the opening of a sliding door inside abullfight arena, one of his spectacles’ lenses turnedinto a perfect, opaque circle by reflected light. Pricesfor top-quality vintage prints of these images haveclimbed steadily in the past several years: In Octoberof 2004, for example, a print of Valencia sold for$78,000 at Sotheby’s New York, the highest sumpaid so far at auction for that work.

The photographer’s auction record before the sale ofHyères, France was also set at Christie’s New York, where, inFebruary 2007, a signed gelatin silver vintage print of Italy, 1933,brought $204,000. A gelatin silver print of On the Banks of theMarne went for $132,000 at Christie’s New York in October2005. And in October 2006, a signed print of Cuba, 1934, fetched$102,000 at Phillips de Pury & Company. “It’s getting moredifficult to find prints,” notes the Paris dealer Agathe Gaillard.

Cartier-Bresson was drafted shortly after World War IIbroke out and, in 1940, was captured by the Germans. He managedto escape from a prison camp and returned to Paris, wherehe joined the Resistance. While hiding out from and fightingthe occupiers, he took documentary photographs as well asportraits of some of the most famous artists and writers ofthe time, including Georges Braque, Pierre Bonnard and HenriMatisse. The portraits, although among the best-known imagesof these personalities, are generally less sought after, and thusless expensive, than his street photography. A late print of HenriMatisse, Vence, France, 1944, for example, brought just $6,000at Bonhams & Butterfields, in San Francisco, in May. Some,however, bring considerably more than that: A signed 1938 printof Alberto Giacometti working in his Paris studio sold at Phillipsin New York in April 2006 for $38,400.