130 - Eugène ATGET (1857–1927)

Eugène ATGET (1857–1927) Shop, 3 rue Eginhard (4th arrondissement), 1907 A fruit vendor’s stall under a stone archway: tables and crates of vegetables, baskets, bunches of herbs hanging from the ceiling, a poster reading “…international exhibition…” on the wall to the left; a narrow alley. Silver print 23.8 x 18.2 cm Inscription on the reverse: Annotations: “Shop at 3 rue Eginhard” in ink; in pencil: “Paris 4th arrondissement – 1907 / Album E 10989 [?] Picturesque Old Paris.” Provenance: former collection of Jean-Marie Drot Born in Libourne in 1857, Eugène Atget was a sailor and then 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 Historic Monuments department, 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.