91 - Eugène ATGET (1857–1927)

Eugène ATGET (1857–1927) Au Bon Puits, 36 rue Michel-le-Comte (3rd arrondissement), 1901 Famous wrought-iron sign from the former cabaret: a bucket suspended from a pulley amid scrollwork above the glass door, grilles on the storefront, and the inscription “Au Bon Puits” painted on the fascia. Silver print 23.8 x 18.4 cm Inscription on the reverse: Pencil annotations: “Au Bon Puits, 36 rue Michel-le-Comte (3rd Arr.) (demolished in 1904) – 1901 - BNF,” “p. 213,” “1) Top section [?],” “2) 7 cm [?],” “Photo 24”; framing sketch with an arrow and “3 x” Provenance: former Jean-Marie Drot collection Bibliography: *Atget Paris*, introduction by Laure Beaumont-Maillet, Paris, Hazan, 1992, reproduced on p. 213. 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.