- On the Banks of the Marne, France
Sheet: 7 15/16 × 10 1/16 in. (20.1 × 25.5 cm)
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Henri Cartier-Bresson photographed this small group of riverside picnickers in Juvisy, a spot just 15 minutes from Paris by train and popular with workers taking advantage of the leftist government’s newly mandated two weeks of paid vacation. Cartier-Bresson captured this image on assignment for Regards magazine, which published several features during the summer of 1938 celebrating the accessibility of leisure to the working class. While Cartier-Bresson’s picture echoes painted scenes of bourgeois leisure of the late 19th century, it demonstrates how photography quickly supplanted other mediums as the most prolific in depicting leisure culture and modern life in the 20th century.
ProvenanceEx-collection Leica Camera, New Jersey; [Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York]; purchased by Manfred Heiting, April 12, 1992; purchased by MFAH, 2002.
Exhibition History"Paris Photographs from the Manfred Heiting Collection" at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, July 17-October 6, 2002.
"From the Printed Page: Photographs from the Manfred Heiting Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, January 23-June 5, 2006.
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