140 - Eugène ATGET (1857–1927)

Eugène ATGET (1857–1927) Flea market vendor, corner of Boulevard Edgar-Quinet (14th arrondissement) “H. Goemans – Secondhand Dealer” shop under a large awning: furniture, mattresses, tableware, and odds and ends laid out on the sidewalk; a man in a hat walking down the cobblestone street; a café and passersby in the distance; the National Library’s stamp visible in the image. Silver print 18.2 x 23.8 cm Inscription on the reverse: Ink annotation, written upside down: “Corner of Bd Edgar Quinet. Secondhand dealer”; “1” in pencil; round gray sticker Provenance: former collection of Jean-Marie Drot Bibliography: *Atget Paris*, introduction by Laure Beaumont-Maillet, Paris, Hazan, 1992, reproduced on p. 676. Born in Libourne in 1857, Eugène Atget worked as a sailor and then as an actor before devoting himself to photography around 1890. Based 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.