''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 artist and Humanist photography, humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 135 film, 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street ...

in a

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

street, Rue Mouffetard, 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, in

, and it exemplifies what he described as the decisive moment. The picture is also one of the best examples of the genre of

street photography Street photography is photography conducted for art or inquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within Public space, public places. It usually has the aim of capturing images at a decisive or poignant moment by caref ...

, which was cultivated by the author. The atmosphere of the photograph is very light-hearted. It depicts a young smiling child, named Michel Gabriel, walking while carrying two bottles of wine on his arms. 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, in

, the Museum of Fine Arts, in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, 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 (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, in

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

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

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