Temperaments: Memoirs of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Other Artists - Paperback

by Dan Hofstadter (Author)

In these five profiles, four of which originally appeared in the New Yorker, the author evokes the life and work of seven gifted artists. Among those presented, often through lively conversations, are Jean Hélion, Mark Rothko, R.B. Kitaj, and Dennis Creffield. Chief among those portrayed however is Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), the great French photographer and photojournalist who, famed for dodging contact with the press, is here sketched in rare and fond detail. Of all these artists, only two still live: what emerges from this book is a picture, often bizarre, often hilarious, of a bygone bohemian world.

Author Biography

Dan Hofstadter was educated at Columbia University and the Sorbonne, to which he received a French scholarship. He has contributed to many national journals, including Smithsonian, the Wall Street Journal, and the New Yorker, serving as a contract writer for the latter for eight years. He is the author of five works of nonfiction. The Love Affair as a Work of Art (1996) was nominated for a Book Critics Circle Award; Falling Palace (2005) was nominated for an American PEN Award.