167 - Eugène ATGET (1857–1927)

Eugène ATGET (1857–1927) Porte de Montreuil, at a rag-and-bone man’s house (20th arrondissement), 1913 The courtyard of a rag-and-bone man in the area: tubs, basins, jugs, and buckets scattered about; a straw-seated chair, a cart, and fences; a brick shack on the right; the National Library’s stamp is visible in the image. Silver print 23.8 x 18.2 cm Inscription on the reverse: Annotation in ink: “Porte de Montreuil 1913.” Provenance: former Jean-Marie Drot collection 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 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.