80 - Eugène ATGET (1857–1927)

Eugène ATGET (1857–1927) Cabaret du Petit Havre, 26 rue de Seine (6th arrondissement), 1911–1913 Storefront of “Larribe Wine Merchants” - Restaurant - Aux Barreaux Verts”: grilles, faux marble base, illustrated posters reading “Publicité Gabert, 1 rue Feydeau” on either side of the door, and a medallion carved with a portrait on the facade. Silver print 24 x 18.5 cm Lower left corner slightly creased Inscription on the reverse: Pencil annotation: “Cabaret du petit Havre, 26 rue de Seine (1911–1913), 6th arrondissement, BNF”; round label bearing the number “1” Provenance: former collection of Jean-Marie Drot Born in Libourne in 1857, Eugène Atget worked as a sailor and then as an actor before devoting himself to photography around 1890. Based 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 Historic Monuments department, which saw them as a record 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.