161 - Eugène ATGET (1857–1927)

Eugène ATGET (1857–1927) Porte d'Arcueil, Boulevard Jourdan (14th arrondissement), 1913 A paved road crossing the city wall between two millstone walls topped by tree-lined embankments, wooden barriers, and a streetlamp in the foreground; a number inscribed in the lower left corner of the image; the National Library’s stamp visible in the image. Silver print Inscription on the reverse: Annotations in ink: “Porte d’Arcueil / Bd Jourdan. La Barrière [?] de Paris / 1913 (14th arrondissement)”; in pencil: “Photo 38 [?]” underlined, “1) Ensemble,” a cross, and “2.” in the center; round gray label Provenance: former Jean-Marie Drot collection Bibliography: *Atget Paris*, introduction by Laure Beaumont-Maillet, Paris, Hazan, 1992, reproduced on p. 686. 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 “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.