Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908-2004). Lahore, Pakistan, 1947. Gelatin silver print, printed later. Signed in ink an...

Description

Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908-2004)
Lahore, Pakistan, 1947
Gelatin silver print, printed later. Signed in ink and embossed artist's copyright stamp, lower margin recto.
image: 14 x 9-1/2 inches (35.6 x 24.1 cm)
sheet: 16 x 12 inches

PROVENANCE:
Acquired directly from the artist.

LITERATURE:
Henri Cartier-Bresson, The Man, The Image and The World, A Retrospective, Thames and Hudson, London, 2003, ill. pl. 361.

1947 was a momentous year for Henri-Cartier Bresson: he co-founded the illustrious Magnum photo agency with fellow photographers Robert Capa and George Rodger; he was given a retrospective exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York by curators Nancy and Beaumont Newhall (a print from this show is being sold elsewhere in this sale); and, prompted by his first wife Javanese dancer Ratna Mohini, he embarked on a major three-year expedition to the Indian sub-continent to record the enormous socio-political changes that were taking place in the aftermath of colonialism.

The city of Lahore was central to events leading up to Pakistan's independence from India in 1947. It experienced alarming rioting during the partition period beforehand and this period of extreme turbulence and uncertainty is reflected in the anxious faces and postures of Cartier-Bresson's sitters in this powerful study.


More information about Henri Cartier-Bresson. See also: Cartier-Bresson, Henri, Bresson, Henri Cartier Artist.

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