125 - Eugène ATGET (1857–1927)

Eugène ATGET (1857–1927) Shop, 340 Rue de Vaugirard (15th arrondissement), 1910 A shop selling wickerwork and household goods under the sign “Meubles… ”: baskets, shopping bags, hanging brushes and utensils, wicker armchairs, straw-seated chairs, and baskets stacked on the sidewalk; a display of slippers and baskets; the National Library’s stamp visible in the image. Silver print 23.8 x 18.5 cm Inscription on the reverse: Annotation in ink: “Shop at 340 Rue de Vaugirard. 1910” 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. 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 Historic Monuments department, 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.