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Cameras, film cameras and TV sets

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Mon 29 Jul

HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON (Chanteloup-en-Brie, France, 1908- Céreste, France, 2004). "Hyères, France, 1932. Gelatin silver. Later impression. Signed in ink and with photographer's copyright stamp (in margin). Provenance: Bennett Private Collection, New York. The Pompidou Center has a copy of this photograph. Measurements: 25 x 36 cm (image); 31 x 41 cm (paper). Taken at the age of 24, when Henri Cartier Bresson had just bought his small Leica camera, this snapshot becomes one of his best known images and one of the most expensive auctioned by the artist. It shows the speed and mobility that this camera gave to freeze the movement and the fleeting moment with endless aesthetic possibilities. Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French artist and humanist photographer considered a master of photography and one of the first users of 35 mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography and considered photography as capturing a decisive moment. His first major reportage trip took him to the Ivory Coast in 1931.Photographs from his many travels quickly found a forum in magazines and exhibitions. He also gained experience in New York with Paul Strand. In the late summer of 1937, before the battle of Belchite, he traveled to Spain with Herbert Kline, former editor of New Theater magazine, and cameraman Jacques Lemare to shoot a documentary on the American Medical Bureau during the Spanish Civil War. They filmed at Villa Paz, the International Brigades hospital in Saelices, not far from Madrid, and on the coast of Valencia to document the recovery of wounded volunteers in the villas of Benicàssim. They also visited the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Quinto, near Zaragoza, and shot the film With the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain. From 1937 to 1939, Cartier-Bresson was assistant director on three films by Jean Renoir, including The Rules of the Game. In 1940, he spent nearly three years as a prisoner of war in Germany. After it was erroneously assumed that he had died in the war, the Museum of Modern Art in New York dedicated a major "posthumous" retrospective to Cartier-Bresson in 1947. That same year, together with Robert Capa, David Seymour and George Rodger, he founded the Magnum Photos agency in New York with the aim of preserving the rights to the photographers' work.Cartier-Bresson was the first photographer allowed to exhibit at the Louvre in Paris in 1955. His photographs were collected and published in Images à la sauvette (1952, Images in passing), D'une Chine à l'autre (1968, China yesterday and today) and Moscou (1955, Moscow), among others. Cartier-Bresson stopped taking professional photographs in 1972 and devoted himself intensely to the art of drawing. In 1974 he was elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Estim. 13 000 - 14 000 EUR

Wed 14 Aug

Benjamin Rush War-Dated Autograph Letter Signed on George Washington and British Movements: "Our town is alive with news. The minute guns were fired this morning. It threw the city into confusion." Revolutionary War-dated ALS signed “B. Rush,” three pages on two adjoining sheets, 7.25 x 12, April 14, 1777. Addressed from Philadelphia, a handwritten letter to his wife, Julia, in part: “I am sorry to inform you that I could not get a single fish, nor an ounce of fresh meat in market this morning owing to their both being all bought up before Azariah came to town. I am glad to hear that our new Levee behaves so well. I think the less Molly and he dispute about politicks the better. Such disputes especially among ignorant people generally confirm predjudices and increase Obstinacy. Perhaps by a different course of behavior to him he may be induced to refuse to be exchanged, and may continue with us as long as we want him. Our town is alive with news. The minute guns were fired this morning. It threw the city into confusion. An express has just arrived who says there are nine Men of War in the river. This Acc't makes it certain that Phila. is the object of the enemy. We expect every moment to hear of our bay being crowded with transports filled with British and Hessian soldiers. Major General Lincoln (a Massachusetts Bay man), was surprised and taken prisoner a few nights ago near Bound Brook in New Jersey together with 200 men by a party of the enemy. Our brother came to town last night. He positively sets off early tomorrow morning to Mr. Bartrams...agreeable to his duty and our mother's orders. As everything is now turned topsy turvy in town, I fear you will not spend your time agreeably here. I think you had better set off tomorrow morning for Grame Park. It will not however do to spend a week there, as I know not how soon Gen'l Howe’s progress up the Delaware may make it necessary to fly with you to Maryland. Suppose you leave Mrs. Pamper at Capt. Allison's and call for her in a day or two. I fear I shall not be able to come for you. I enter upon the care of a military hospital tomorrow, and shall have a hundred things to do that are important to ourselves as well as the public. Enclosed is an Evening Post. Gen Washington's letter is a masterpiece. It has raised his character higher than ever in the opinion of Congress and his friends. The Congress have settled my appointment in the Army so as to be perfectly agreeable to me. They have made me Joint Physician and Surgeon General with Dr. Jones of Virginia of the middle department. You may depend upon my care and tenderness in conducting you to Mr. Halls as soon as the danger is more imminent. Much love to our brother and sister.” Rush adds a postscript: “Keep up the spirits of our brother and sister. All is for the best and all will end well...The counsels of Heaven must be fulfilled. ‘Clouds and darkness are before him, but righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne.’” In very good to fine condition, with seal-related paper loss near the hinge.

Estim. 4 000 - 6 000 USD