''Rue Mouffetard, Paris'', is a black and white photograph taken by

Henri Cartier-Bresson Henri Cartier-Bresson (; 22 August 1908 – 3 August 2004) was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as cap ...

in a

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

street in 1954.

History and description

The picture is one of the best known of the artist and is named from the street where the event was caught on camera. It was taken candidly in the

Rue Mouffetard Rue Mouffetard () is a street in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. Situated in the fifth (''cinquième'') arrondissement of Paris, Rue Mouffetard is one of Paris's oldest and liveliest neighbourhoods. These days the area has many restaura ...

, in

, and it exemplifies what he described as the

decisive moment Henri Cartier-Bresson (; 22 August 1908 – 3 August 2004) was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as cap ...

. The picture is also one of the best examples of the genre of

street photography Street photography (also sometimes called candid photography) is photography conducted for art or enquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places. Although there is a difference between street and ca ...

, which was cultivated by the author. The atmosphere of the photograph is very light-hearted. It depicts a young smiling child, named Michel Gabriel, carrying two bottles of wine. Behind him, at the left, the blurred image shows two girls that watch him amused. Two adult women, also blurred, are seen at the bottom left, of those only one is looking at the scene.

Public collections

There are prints of this photograph at the

Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation The Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation (French: ''Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson''), also known as Fondation HCB, is an art gallery and non-profit organisation in Paris that was established to preserve and show the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson an ...

, in

, the Museum of Fine Arts, in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, and at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

.Rue Mouffetard, Paris, Museum of Modern Art, New York
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rue Mouffetard, Paris (photograph) 1954 in art Black-and-white photographs 1950s photographs Photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson Photographs in the Museum of Modern Art (New York City)