Liverpool (Three Little Girls)

Artist Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908 - 2004)

Date1962; printed 1969

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 9 5/16 × 13 7/8 inches (23.65 × 35.24 cm)
Sheet: 10 7/8 × 15 5/8 inches (27.62 × 39.69 cm)

Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Object number2005.27.1026

SignedSigned on sheet recto, bottom, in black pen: "Henri Cartier-Bresson"; Signed on sheet verso, center, in black pen: "Henri Cartier-Bresson".

Inscribednone

MarkingsOn sheet verso, center, in pencil: "8135/28", "R [circled]; On sheet verso, lower right, in pencil: "8135-/28-"

On View

Not on view

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DescriptionImage of three young girls in coats walking along a street in front of a crumbling stone structure. Fog partially obscures the tall buildings in the background.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

Scarred by bombing, invasion, and economic destabilization, the urban landscape of post-World War II Europe was radically different than that of the United States. Here, French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson captures three young girls passing crumbled buildings in Liverpool, England, contrasting the city’s future with its prolonged recovery from a difficult past.

The war also affected the availability of photographic materials. In preparation for a 1947 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Cartier-Bresson had to request that the curator, Nancy Newhall, mail him photographic paper because of its scarcity in France.

Provenance

Hallmark Cards Inc., Kansas City, MO, 1969;
Given by Hallmark Cards, Inc. to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.

Published References

Henri Cartier-Bresson, The World of Henri Cartier-Bresson. (The Viking Press, Inc. New York, NY, 1968), 70.

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