CARTIER-BRESSON HENRI (1908-2004). Last days of the Kuomintang, Beijing, China, December 1948. Early in the morning, in the Forbidden City, ten thousand new recruits are gathered to form a nationalist regiment. Silver photographic print circa 1948, 2 different stamps of the photographer on the reverse side as well as a typed text on a label and annotations in pencil, 1948, dimensions 20,2 x 16,6 cm, a signed certificate of the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation accompanies the work. Small loss on the lower edge, otherwise very good condition. On November 25, 1948, Henri Cartier-Bresson was commissioned by Life magazine to report on the "last days of Pe_kin" before the arrival of the Maoist troops. He came for two weeks and stayed for ten months, mainly around Shanghai, witnessing the fall of the Kuomintang-held city of Nanjing, then being forced to stay in Shanghai under Communist control for four months and leaving China a few days before the proclamation of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949.