96 - Eugène ATGET (1857–1927)

Eugène ATGET (1857–1927) The Knife Grinder, Rue des Nonnains-d'Hyères (4th arrondissement), 1900 Famous carved sign depicting a knife grinder at his grindstone, cantilevered at the corner of Rue de l’Hôtel-de-Ville and Rue des Nonnains-d’Hyères; street signs, “Draperie - Velours” storefront, “No Posting” sign; the National Library’s stamp is visible in the image. Silver print 23.8 x 18.2 cm Inscription on the reverse: Pencil annotation: “The Knife Grinder on Rue des Nonnains d’Hyères (4th Arr.)—1900—BNF,” “p. 262” Provenance: former collection of Jean-Marie Drot Bibliography: *Atget Paris*, introduction by Laure Beaumont-Maillet, Paris, Hazan, 1992, reproduced on p. 262. 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 “reference material 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 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.