Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50 - 2018.

Republican Women Volunteers Learning to Handle Weapons During the Spanish Civil War

Artist Robert Capa (Hungarian, 1913 - 1954)

CultureHungarian

Date1936, printed ca. 1983

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsOverall, Image: 8 1/2 × 5 3/4 in. (21.6 × 14.6 cm)
Overall, Support: 9 1/2 × 7 in. (24.1 × 17.8 cm)
Overall, Mat: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)

InscribedThe verso also includes an upside-down inscription printed in mimeograph ink that reads: “The LOST photos of Robert CAPA, found 40 years later. Distrib 83-121 / Most people have seen the famous photo of the Spanish fighter being shot in the battlefield and falling backwards, or the soldiers landing in the wash on the Normandy beaches. His book and exhibit of photos IMAGES OF WAR has become a classic of ‘photojournalism’. In Paris in 1935 the young Hungarian Andre Friedmann and his girlfriend Gerda Tarro invented the name “ROBERT CAPA” to be the famous American photographer. His photos of the Spanish Civil War, Japanese Chinese War, and the French “FrontPopularie” were the roots of a long and turbulent career. With the outbreak of World War II, Capa was overseas and asked friends to save his negatives in Paris and take them away for safekeeping. The suitcase disappeared during an escape route to Marseille, now over 40 years later some of Capa’s unknown images have been found in a Parris attic. The owner Bernard Matussiere found them in old packing boxes, this selection in part of the unpublished photographic treasures./ Photos by Robert CAPA,/ [Illegible] Photos, 20 rue des Grands Augustins, Paris 6e.”

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number2017.16.2

Not on view

DescriptionThis gelatin silver print depicts members of the Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya (PSUC or Unified Socailist Party of Catalonia) militia lining up for instruction on how to use weapons. All the figures depicted are female and are wearing dark overalls.
Label Texttop Robert Capa Hungarian, 1913–1954 Republican Women Volunteers Learning to Handle Weapons During the Spanish Civil War, 1936 Gelatin silver print (photograph), printed ca. 1983 Museum purchase 2017.16.2 bottom Henri Cartier-Bresson French, 1908–2004 Seville, Spain, 1933 Gelatin silver print (photograph), printed 1940s Museum purchase, in memory of Alice R. and Sol B. Frank 2002.12 When Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa formed Magnum Photos in 1947, they set out to change the look of photojournalism. Owned and operated by artists, the photo agency encouraged members to develop their own visual styles when capturing contemporary events. Capa was known for his frontline war photographs and in 1938 the magazine Picture Post called him “the greatest war photographer in the world.” Between 1936 and 1938 he traveled to Spain to make images of the civil war, producing photographs like this one of militiawomen. Cartier-Bresson travelled broadly in Asia, Europe, and the United States, producing images that convey his experience. Less concerned with reportage than Capa, he sought to compose expressive scenes—an approach to photography he theorized in his trendsetting 1952 book The Decisive Moment. ProvenanceArtist; Halsted Gallery; Chrysler Museum of Art, June 2017Exhibition History"Photographs Take Time: Pictures from the Chrysler Collection," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, April 6 - August 26, 2018.