110 - Eugène ATGET (1857–1927)

Eugène ATGET (1857–1927) At La Petite Hotte, 1 rue des Orfèvres (1st arrondissement) Street corner: “Petite Hotte – Restaurant” flag sign and a suspended wrought-iron hood; storefront reading “Wine and Liqueur Store”; inscriptions reading “Restaurant – Wines – Beef Broth - Beef,” a laurel wreath above the door reading “Maison Voisin [?],” a streetlamp on the corner; the National Library’s stamp is visible in the image. Silver print 23.7 x 18.2 cm Inscription on the reverse: Annotation in ink: “At La Petite Hotte, 1 rue des Orfèvres.”; in pencil: “p63” Provenance: former collection of Jean-Marie Drot Bibliography: *Atget Paris*, introduction by Laure Beaumont-Maillet, Paris, Hazan, 1992, reproduced on p. 63. 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.