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Photographs

Thursday 16 October 2025, 03:00 PM • Milan

98

Brassaï (Gyula Halasz)

(1899 - 1984)

La Seine au Pont des Arts, 1935

Artist's Resale Right

Estimate

€ 3.000 - 4.000

Sold

€ 7.710

The price includes buyer's premium

Information

Gelatin silver print, printed in 1970s
cm 38,5 x 29,5 (cm 31,8 x 24,3 picture) | 15.1 x 11.6 in. (12.5 x 9.5 in. picture)
Edition Artist Proof
Numbered E.A., dedicated and signed in black ink on the white inferior recto margin

Literature

H. Miller, R. Delpire, P. Faucheux (edited by), Brassai, Editions Neuf, Paris, 1952, p. 27L. Soucek (edited by), Brassai, SNKLHU, Prague, 1962, p. 5L. Durrell (edited by), Brassai Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1968, p. 51Paris le jour Paris la nuit, Musée Carnavalet, Paris, 1988, p. 31
Parisian winter nights, when fog rose from the Seine and enveloped the city, and the strangest characters roamed the streets: policemen on bicycles wrapped in their regulation capes, prostitutes waiting for clients, couples entering and leaving bistros, street musicians, criminals. Among them, you might spot a few photographers who loved that world a little from the inside, being part of it, and a little from the outside, as curious observers. Kertész and Brassaï roamed Paris together, and who knows whether they spoke the French they had learned or the Hungarian of their origins. The former focused on details, while the latter loved wider shots, such as this one of lights piercing the fog and darkness. He would set up his tripod, place his folding camera on it, light a cigarette and, watching it burn down, count the (long) exposure times. Simple, right? But try doing that with our ultra-technological equipment, if you can. 

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