117 - Eugène ATGET (1857–1927)

Eugène ATGET (1857–1927) A Jean Bart, 38 Avenue de La Motte-Picquet, 1911–1913 A café-tobacco shop topped by a statue of the privateer Jean Bart in a niche, a tobacco stalk hanging above the door, signs reading “Tobacco,” “Beer,” “Telephone,” “Premium and Imported Tobacco,” “Havana Cigars and Cigarettes,” awnings extended, bistro chairs and small tables on the terrace; the National Library’s stamp visible in the image. Silver print 23.8 x 18.2 cm Inscription on the reverse: Pencil annotations: “To Jean Bart, 38 Avenue Lamotte Piquet. (15th arrondissement) 1911–1913 BNF,” “G045788,” “Photo 7,” “1) Upper set,” “X2” in the center Provenance: former collection of Jean-Marie Drot Bibliography: *Atget Paris*, introduction by Laure Beaumont-Maillet, Paris, Hazan, 1992, reproduced on p. 519. 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.