Trieste

1933

Not on view

In this early work, made just two years after he acquired his first 35mm Leica camera, Cartier-Bresson captures a scene of formal poetry and evocative mystery on a beach in Trieste, Italy, the site of one of his many travels in those years. Punctuated by the upright verticals of a tree and a brick tower, the horizontal expanses of sky and lawn are mirrored in the languorous pose of the outstretched figure. Suggesting calm and repose, the scene and the figure’s averted face nevertheless contain a disquieting note. Cartier-Bresson would continue to explore such themes throughout his long career, finding the surreal and the discordant within seemingly ordinary moments.

Artwork Details

Title: Trieste
Artist: Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, Chanteloup-en-Brie 1908–2004 Montjustin)
Date: 1933
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: 25.3 x 35.1 cm (9 15/16 x 13 13/16 in.)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987
Object Number: 1987.1100.167
Rights and Reproduction: © Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum
Curatorial Department: Photographs

More Artwork

By Henri Cartier-Bresson

In the same medium

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Les points de couture. Première partie. Les points de broderie. Deuxième partie. Les points de crochet. Troisième partie

Henri Cartier-Bresson

ca. 1940 (?)

Jean-Michel Folon

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Jean-Michel Folon

December 1989

Manifestation au Mur des Fédérés, Père Lachaise, Paris, France, 1936-1939, Henri Cartier-Bresson French, Gelatin silver print — Manifestation au Mur des Fédérés, Père Lachaise, Paris, France, 1936-1939
Henri Cartier-Bresson
1936–39

British Couple at the Races, Happy Valley, Hong Kong, Henri Cartier-Bresson French, Gelatin silver print — British Couple at the Races, Happy Valley, Hong Kong
Henri Cartier-Bresson
1949

Listening to a Soap Box Orator, Hyde Park, London, Henri Cartier-Bresson French, Gelatin silver print — Listening to a Soap Box Orator, Hyde Park, London
Henri Cartier-Bresson
1945

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