Image scanned from a transparency and color-corrected by Ed Pollard-2008.

Rue du Figuier

Artist Eugène Atget (French, 1857-1927)

CultureFrench

Date1924

MediumAlbumen print

DimensionsOverall, Image: 8 7/8 × 7 in. (22.5 × 17.8 cm)
Overall, Support: 15 × 12 15/16 in. (38.1 × 32.9 cm)
Overall, Mat: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)

InscribedVerso of print, written in Atget's hand in pencil: Rue du Figuier 6515; (and in ink?) Hôtel de Sens; Ink Stamp: E. ATGET; Rue Campagne-Pemiere 17; Lower right in pencil: MOMA DUPE; 2002 SMM/69./1662

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. by Exchange

Object number2002.5.2

Not on view

DescriptionThis is a vintage albumen print of a Hotel in Paris, France. In the center foreground, a cobblestone street narrows, between buildings, toward the background.

Label TextEugène Atget French (1857-1927) Rue du Figuier, 1924 Albumen print Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. by Exchange 2002.5.2 An extraordinary photographer, Eugène Atget's intention was to photograph everything that was beautiful in and around Paris, and his images are now considered early masterpieces of photographic realism. He began photographing at age 40 and worked until the year of his death. During that time he made approximately 10,000 glass-plate negatives of turn-of-the-century Paris and its rural environs. He made a living selling his photographs to French institutions such as the Bibliothéque Nationale, the Museé Carnavalet, and to artists to be used as reference works. His work was admired by the Surrealists and, in the 1920s, was reproduced in their publications. His fame as a photographic artist has accrued entirely in retrospect, thanks to the efforts of Berenice Abbott and, more recently, the Museum of Modern Art. In his writings, Atget referred to himself not as a photographer, but as an artistie dramatique or auteur editeur. Edited By: GLY Edited Date: 09/2004 Approved By: MHM Approval Date: 09/21/2005ProvenanceEugene Atget; Berenice Abbott and Julian Levy, 1927-1968; sold to Museum of Modern Art, 1968-2002; Chrysler Museum of Art purchase, Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. by Exchange, 2002. Exhibition History"Photography Speaks," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photo Galleries, September 4, 2004 - January 2, 2005. "Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris," The Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN, September 10, 2009 - January 3, 2010; International Center of Photography, New York, NY, January 29 - May 9, 2010; the Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, GA, June 10 - October 10, 2010.Published ReferencesChrysler Museum, "Chrysler Museum of Art Acquires Rare Atget Photographs," http://news.amn.org/amn_home.jsp, Art Museum Network News, October 18, 2002: http://news.amn.org/press.jsp?id=1105. Theresa Lichtenstein, _Twilight Visions: Surrealism and Paris_, exh. cat., (Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2009), 38.