HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON

DECISIVE MOMENTS
The Fine Art Society
in association with
Peter Fetterman Gallery
6 to 29 october 2015

148 New Bond Street · London W1S 2JT

+44 (0)20 7629 5116
For sales enquiries
please contact Rowena Morgan-Cox
rm@faslondon.com
 The Fine Art Society
in association with
Peter Fetterman Gallery
london · 2015

HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON
DECISIVE MOMENTS
 Foreword  The Fine Art Society

Henri Cartier-Bresson was one of the greatest quality of originality in their vision: having
artists of the twentieth century. In a long life he created photographs of their chosen subjects,
turned photo­journalism into an art form, and all subsequent attempts are judged against their
created many of the images by which his time is achievements.
remembered. Although he largely worked as a photojournal-
This exhibition, which includes many of his ist, Henri Cartier-Bresson became an accomplished
finest photographs, is a collaboration with Peter portrait photographer, but most especially one who
Fetterman, an obsessive fan of Cartier-Bresson, captured images in everyday life which are complete
and a dealer in photographs for over forty years. and emotionally satisfying.
The prints in the show were made for Peter by the The photographs are free of artificial effects,
photographer towards the end of his life, and are of spontaneous; they make icons of scenes that the
exceptional quality. rest of the world would scarcely notice. His instinc-
One of the most successful exhibitions in The tive sense of design combined with his ability to
Fine Art Society’s history was that of Herbert Pont- recognise a subject that would never lose its power
ing’s photo­graphs of the Antarctic, taken on Scott’s to captivate the viewer, as his photograph of two
expedition, held in our galleries just over a century plump couples having a picnic on the banks of the
ago. Ponting and Henri Cartier-Bresson share the Marne, continues to demonstrate.
Gordon Cooke

Matisse’s cover design for the first edition of Cartier-Bresson’s Images à la Sauvette
[The Decisive Moment], published by Verve, Paris 1952
 Foreword  Peter Fetterman Gallery

Henri Cartier-Bresson was my photographic hero, People of Moscow, one of my favorite of his out-of-
the man who inadvertently changed my life when I print books. There is an image in it of some Bolshoi
purchased (almost by accident) a print of his image Ballet dancers in the top of the frame with members
Srinagar 1948 [cat.21] almost forty years ago. This of the orchestra on the lower half of the frame beau-
‘decisive moment’ sent me on a new personal and tifully lit [cat.31].
professional path which continues still today. The conversation went like this. ‘Henri, I love
The images you see before you are a selection this image, I’ve never seen a print of it anywhere’
from an almost forty year journey of collecting his I said. He replied ‘Well Peter, that is because no
work. Call it a kind of obsession, malady, if you one has ever asked for one. It’s not important, just
will. From looking at photographs seriously for a snap shot.’ I responded ‘Well Henri, it may be a
this amount of time I instinctively know there are snap shot to you, but I think it is like a great Degas.
good photographers, even great ones, but Henri Will you please make me a couple of prints?’ He
transcended ‘greatness’ and is in a class of his own. replied ‘Okay, if you insist I will oblige’.
I had the great honor of working with him closely And so it went on with many more discoveries
for over 14 years until his passing in 2004. Many over the years. Collectors are only the temporary
of the images were personal requests, little ‘gems’ custodians of the objects of their desire. The time
in his body of work that he had never printed and has come to share them with new friends in the city
signed before as ‘collector prints’. of my birth, London. In this sense my journey has
I remember sitting with him once in his apart- come ‘Full Circle’, and is a testament to the power
ment in Paris thumbing through a copy of The of photography.
peter fetterman

Sam Tata Portrait of Henri Cartier-Bresson 1940

Gelatin silver print, signed on verso in ink · 11 x 14 in · 28 x 35.5 cm
© The Estate of Sam Tata
1 Behind the Gare St Lazare, Paris, France  1932
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto
20 x 16 in · 50.8 x 40.5 cm

All the photographs offered for sale are prints

made from the original negatives in the 1990s under
the direct supervision of Henri Cartier-Bresson.
2 Hyères, The Var department, France  1932
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto
16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm
 4 Allée du Prado,
Marseilles, France  1932
Gelatin silver print, signed in
ink with the photographer’s
blindstamp on recto
16 x 12 in · 40.5 x 30.5 cm

3 Brussels, Belgium  1932

Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto
16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm
5 Self-Portrait  c.1932 6 Italy  1933
Gelatin silver print, signed in Gelatin silver print, signed
ink with the photographer’s and inscribed in ink with the
blindstamp on recto photographer’s blindstamp on recto
20 x 16 in · 50.8 x 40.5 cm 16 x 12  in · 40.5 x 30.5 cm
7 Salerno, Italy  1933 8 Roman Amphitheater, Valencia, Spain 1933
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto photographer’s blindstamp on recto
12 x 16 in · 30.5 x 40.5 cm 16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm
9 Madrid, Spain  1933
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto
16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm
10 Alicante, Valencia Province, Spain  1933 11 Calle Cuauhtemoctzin, Prostitutes, Mexico City, Mexico  1934
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto photographer’s blindstamp on recto
12 x 16 in · 30.5 x 40.5 cm 12 x 16 in · 30.5 x 40.5 cm
 13 Coronation of King
George VI, London  1937
Gelatin silver print, signed in
ink with the photographer’s
blindstamp on recto
20 x 16 in · 50.8 x 40.5 cm

12 Hyde Park in the Grey Drizzle, London, England  1937

Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto
12 x 16 in · 30.5 x 40.5 cm
14 Sunday on the Banks of the Marne, France  1938
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with
photographer’s blindstamp on recto
16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm
15 The Visit of Cardinal Pacelli, Montmartre, Paris  1938 16 Albert Camus, Paris, France  1944
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto photographer’s blindstamp on recto
16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm 16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm
17 Henri Matisse, at his home villa Le Rêve, Vence, France  1944
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto
16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm
18 Easter Sunday,
Harlem, New York,
USA  1947
Gelatin silver print, signed in
ink with the photographer’s
blindstamp on recto
20 x 16 in · 50.8 x 40.5 cm

19 Natchez, Mississippi, USA  1947

Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the photographer’s
blindstamp on recto
16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm
20 Truman Capote, New Orleans, USA  1947
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto
12 x 16 in · 30.5 x 40.5 cm
21 Jaipur, Rajasthan, India  1948 22 Muslim women on the slopes of Hari Parbal Hill, Srinagar, Kashmir  1948
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto photographer’s blindstamp on recto
16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm 16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm
23 Shanghai, China  1949
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto
16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm
24 Rice Fields in the Minangkabau Country, Sumatra, Indonesia  1950
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto
12 x 16 in · 30.5 x 40.5 cm
 26 Schoolchildren looking
from the top of Notre-Dame
cathedral at the Seine River,
Paris, France  1952–53
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink
with photographer’s blindstamp
on recto
20 x 16 in · 50.8 x 40.5 cm

25 Square of the Vert Galant and Pont-Neuf, Ile de la Cité, Paris  1951
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto
12 x 16 in · 30.5 x 40.5 cm
27 Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Munster, Ireland  1952
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto
12 x 16 in · 30.5 x 40.5 cm
28 Scanno, Abruzzo, Italy  1953
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto
20 x 16 in · 50.8 x 40.5 cm
29 Town of Briançon,
Hautes-Alpes, France  1951
Gelatin silver print, signed in
ink with the photographer’s
blindstamp on recto
16 x 12 in · 40.5 x 30.5 cm

30 Torcello in the Venetian Lagoon, Venice, Italy  1954

Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto
12 x 16 in · 30.5 x 40.5 cm
31 Swan Lake, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, USSR  1954
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto
16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm
32 Stade Dynamo, Moscow, Russia 1954 33 Canteen for workers building the Hotel Metropole, Moscow,
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the Russia  1954Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto photographer’s blindstamp on recto
16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm 12 x 16 in · 30.5 x 40.5 cm
34 Near Juvisy-sur-Orge, Essonne, France  1955
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto
16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm
35 Jeronimos Monastery, 36 Bougival, Yvelines,
Lisbon, Portugal  1955 France  1955
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink Gelatin silver print, signed in ink
with the photographer’s blindstamp with the photographer’s blindstamp
on recto on recto
20 x 16 in · 50.8 x 40.5 cm 20 x 16 in · 50.8 x 40.5 cm
37 Mass led by the 38 Rome, Italy  1959
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski and Gelatin silver print, signed in
the ordination of 22 Catholic ink with the photographer’s
priests, Warsaw, Poland 1956 blindstamp on recto
20 x 16 in · 50.8 x 40.5 cm
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink
with the photographer’s blindstamp
on recto
20 x 16 in · 50.8 x 40.5 cm
39 A Transatlantic 40 Times Square,
Arriving in the Harbour, New Year’s Eve, Manhattan,
New York City, USA 1959 NYC, USA  1959
Gelatin silver print, signed in Gelatin silver print, signed in ink
ink with the photographer’s with the photographer’s blindstamp
blindstamp on recto on recto
20 x 16 in · 50.8 x 40.5 cm 20 x 16 in · 50.8 x 40.5 cm
41 Marilyn Monroe, during the filming of
The Misfits by John Huston, Nevada, USA  1960
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto
20 x 16 in · 50.8 x 40.5 cm
42 The Palais Royal Gardens, Paris, France  1960
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto
20 x 16 in · 50.8 x 40.5 cm
43 Alberto Giacometti, 44 Alberto Giacometti,
Maeght Gallery, Paris, Rue d’Alésia, Paris,
France  1961 France  1961
Gelatin silver print, signed in Gelatin silver print, signed in
ink with the photographer’s ink with the photographer’s
blindstamp on recto blindstamp on recto
20 x 16 in · 50.8 x 40.5 cm 16 x 12 in · 40.5 x 30.5 cm
45 Island of Siphnos, Cyclades, Greece  1961 46 Stud farm to the south of Budapest, Hungary  1964
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto photographer’s blindstamp on recto
16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm 16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm
47 A farewell service for the late actor Danjuro at the 48 Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina, Yugoslavia  1965
Aoyama Funeral Hall, Tokyo, Japan  1965 Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the photographer’s blindstamp on recto
photographer’s blindstamp on recto 16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm
12 x 16 in · 30.5 x 40.5 cm
49 Brie, France  1968 50 Near Cereste, Alpes de Haute-Provence, France 1999
Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with Gelatin silver print, signed in ink with the
photographer’s blindstamp on recto photographer’s blindstamp on recto
12 x 16 in · 30.5 x 40.5 cm 16 x 20 in · 40.5 x 50.8 cm
Published for the exhibition Henri Cartier-Bresson:
Decisive Moments held at The Fine Art Society, 148 New Bond
Street, London w1, 6 to 29 October 2015
Catalogue works © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
Courtesy Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson
Catalogue © The Fine Art Society, London, and
Peter Fetterman Gallery, Santa Monica
ISBN 978 1 907052 58 3
Designed and typeset by Dalrymple
Printed in Belgium by Albe De Coker
Front cover: Madrid, Spain 1933 [10]
Frontispiece: Henri Matisse, at his home villa Le Rêve,
Vence, France 1944 [17]
Back cover: Shanghai, China 1949 [22]

The Fine Art Society

dealers since 1876
148 New Bond Street · London W1S 2JT
+44 (0)20 7629 5116 · art@faslondon.com
www.faslondon.com

Peter Fetterman Gallery

Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Avenue · Gallery A1
Santa Monica · CA 90404
+1 310 453 6463 · info@peterfetterman.com
www.peterfetterman.com
The Fine Art Society
in association with
Peter Fetterman Gallery