Libération de Paris, Rue Saint Honoré, France, 22-25 août 1944
Gelatin silver print
23.9 x 35.6 cm (9 7/16 x 14 in.)
In the last days of the Liberation of Paris in late August 1944, a group of men, civilians and armed members of the French Forces of the Interior (Forces françaises intérieures, FFI), take part in an ordnance training session in rue Saint-Honoré, which has been barricaded.
Henri Cartier-Bresson took this picture when he was a photoreporter, alongside others, documenting the last battles between civilians and members of the Resistance and German troops in the heart of the French capital. It became an icon of this historic moment and of the popular fervor that freed Paris.
Libération de Paris, rue Saint-Honoré, France, 22-25 août 1944 is presented for the first time as part of the Pinault Collection in the monographic exhibition Henri Cartier-Bresson. Le Grand Jeu at Palazzo Grassi in Venice, in 2020.
