id: 170101 accession number: 2012.317 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2012.317 updated: 2024-03-26 02:01:32.407000 Festive Burmese in their best clothes stroll around the Great Golden Spire of the Shwedagon Pagoda during Thadingyut, 1951. Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908–2004). Gelatin silver print; image: 16.1 x 24.1 cm (6 5/16 x 9 1/2 in.); paper: 16.1 x 24.1 cm (6 5/16 x 9 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of George Stephanopoulos 2012.317 © Henri Cartier-Bresson title: Festive Burmese in their best clothes stroll around the Great Golden Spire of the Shwedagon Pagoda during Thadingyut title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1951 creation date earliest: 1951 creation date latest: 1951 current location: creditline: Gift of George Stephanopoulos copyright: © Henri Cartier-Bresson --- culture: France, 20th century technique: gelatin silver print department: Photography collection: PH - American 1951-Present type: Photograph find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908–2004) - artist Henri Cartier-Bresson French, 1908-2004 Henri Cartier-Bresson (born in Chanteloup) has achieved fame for his work as a pioneering photojournalist and for his ability to capture the "decisive moment" in candid images of people and events around the world. After studying painting in the 1920s (including one year with cubist André Lhote), Cartier-Bresson became interested in photography while recuperating from illness in 1930-31. Working first with a box camera and then with a 35mm Leica camera, he began to take pictures for magazines and newspapers. In the early 1930s his photographs were featured in exhibitions at the Julian Levy Gallery in New York and the Club Atheneo in Madrid. During this period he traveled and photographed in France, Italy, Spain, Morocco, and Mexico. In 1935 Cartier-Bresson studied cinematography with Paul Strand in New York City, returning to France the following year to work as an assistant on Jean Renoir's films La vie est à nous and Une partie de campagne. In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, Cartier-Bresson made Victorie de la vie, a film documenting conditions in Spanish hospitals. Three years later, while serving in the French army during World War II, he was captured by the Germans. He escaped from prison in 1943 and joined the French resistance. Following the war his work was featured in a major one-artist exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1946), and in 1947 he joined Ropert Capa, George Rodger, and David Seymour in founding magnum Photos, the well-known cooperative agency for photojournalism. Over the next two decades Cartier-Bresson traveled the world as a freelance photojournalist. His work appeared in a number of exhibitions during this time (Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, International Center of Photography, New York, and others) as well as in numerous magazine articles and more than a dozen books, including Images à la sauvette (The Decisive Moment, 1952), D'une Chine à l'autre (1954; From One China to Another, U.S. publication, 1956), Les Européens (The Europeans, 1955), Mouscou, vu par Henri Cartier-Bresson (People of Moscow, 1955), and the Face of Asia (1972). In 1966 Cartier-Bresson left magnum, retiring from photojournalism to concentrate on his drawing. M.M. --- measurements: Image: 16.1 x 24.1 cm (6 5/16 x 9 1/2 in.); Paper: 16.1 x 24.1 cm (6 5/16 x 9 1/2 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Written in pencil on interior of mat: B/258" Typed in blue ink on adhesive label on verso: "FESTIVAL AT THE GOLD PAGODA. Pix by Henri Cartier Bresson of "Magnum"/This month thousands of devout Burmese flock to the fantastic Shwe/Dr(r crossed out in blue ink)agon in Rangoon for the annual Festival of Fire." Typed in black ink on adhesive label on verso: "32 (220-27)/Festive Burmese in their best clothes stroll around the great golden spire of the Shwe Dagon pagoda during Thadingyut." Stamped in black ink on verso: "SEE/13OCT1951/ILLUSTRATED" Stamped in black ink on verso: "PROPERTY OF THE/PERIODICALS ART LIBRARY,/191 HIGH HOLBORN. W.G.I./MUST BE RETURNED UNDAMAGED (underlined)" Typed in blue ink on adhesive label on verso: "FILE BURMA/RELIGION." Written in pencil on verso: "LLO-27" Written in pencil on verso: "32 (circled)" Written in pencil on verso: "HCB-13-94" Written in pencil on verso: "8-" translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Text and Image in Southern Asia​ (Indian Painting and Himalayan rotation) opening date: 2022-08-26T04:00:00 Text and Image in Southern Asia​ (Indian Painting and Himalayan rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26, 2022-March 5, 2023). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE George Stephanpoulos [b. 1961], New York, NY, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: ?–2012 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: December 3, 2012– footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES