73 - Eugène ATGET (1857–1927)

Eugène ATGET (1857–1927) Cabaret, 62 rue de l'Hôtel-de-Ville (4th arrondissement), 1901–1903 Café storefront: glass door between two fluted pilasters with capitals adorned with masks; wrought-iron transom featuring two birds with outstretched wings perched on crossed spires; folding chairs and a small table on the terrace; reflections of trees in the window; “Plats…” sign on the right; National Library stamp visible in the image. Silver print 24 x 19 cm Inscription on the reverse: Annotations in blue ink: “Cabaret 62 rue de l’Hôtel de Ville (5th arrondissement) (closed around 1905) IV.14”; in pencil: “1901–1903 – BNF, from a glass negative,” “p. 256” Provenance: former Jean-Marie Drot collection Bibliography: *Atget Paris*, introduction by Laure Beaumont-Maillet, Paris, Hazan, 1992, reproduced on p. 256. Born in Libourne in 1857, Eugène Atget worked as a sailor and then as an actor before devoting himself to photography around 1890. Settling on Rue Campagne-Première, he produced “documents for artists” and spent nearly forty years photographing old Paris: streets, courtyards, storefronts, signs, small trades, parks, and interiors. His thousands of photographs were acquired by the National Library, the Carnavalet Museum, and the Monuments Historiques, which saw them as an inventory of a city in the process of disappearing. Man Ray and the Surrealists, followed by Berenice Abbott—who saved a large portion of his collection—revealed the poetic dimension of his work. He died in Paris in 1927 and is considered one of the fathers of modern documentary photography.