The Second Sex

Henri Cartier-Bresson, who seemed at times to know everyone of importance on the planet, was a friend and professional ‘colleague’ of the artists, writers, philosophers and intellectuals living and working in Paris after the Second World War. This naturally included the Existentialists. While his portraits of Jean Paul Sartre are perhaps better known, Cartier-Bresson also made memorable images of Sartre’s fellow Existentialist and wife (they had a famously open relationship), Simone de Beauvoir.
De Beauvoir’s remarkable book, The Second Sex, was an extremely early (1949) work of Feminist history and thought. Published in countless editions, it remains an iconic work.

The photo on the cover of this 1989 softcover Vintage  edition is a small detail from one of Cartier-Bresson’s portraits of de Beauvoir. Because it has been enlarged, the image is not quite sharp, perhaps intentionally.

To view an uncropped version of this portrait, click here.