Versailles

1924–25

Not on view

From 1898 until his death in 1927, Atget exhaustively documented the remains of Old Paris: the city’s streets, monuments, interiors, and environs. Among the last entries in this self-directed preservationist effort was a series of images of landscapes and sculpture in the parks of Saint-Cloud and Versailles. Here, the photographer records a statue of a sleeping Ariadne, the mythical Cretan princess abandoned by her lover Theseus on the island of Naxos. Atget’s simultaneously realistic and otherworldly photographs inspired the Surrealist artist Man Ray, who reproduced four of them in a 1926 issue of the journal La Révolution Surréaliste, thus presenting the elder photographer as a modernist forerunner.

Artwork Details

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Exhibition History

Title: Versailles
Artist: Eugène Atget (French, Libourne 1857–1927 Paris)
Date: 1924–25
Medium: Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions: Image: 17.5 x 21.9 cm (6 7/8 x 8 5/8 in.)
Sheet: 18 × 21.9 cm (7 1/16 × 8 5/8 in.)
Mat: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Gilman Collection, Purchase, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gift, 2005
Object Number: 2005.100.512
Curatorial Department: Photographs

More Artwork

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St. Cloud near Paris, Eugène Atget French, Albumen silver print from glass negative — St. Cloud near Paris
Eugène Atget
1923

A la Biche, rue Geoffrey Hilaire, Eugène Atget French, Matte gelatin silver print from glass negative — A la Biche, rue Geoffrey Hilaire
Eugène Atget
1922

Eclipse, Eugène Atget French, Gelatin silver print from glass negative — Eclipse
Eugène Atget
1911, printed 1956

Boucherie, Rue Christine, Eugène Atget French, Gelatin silver print from glass negative — Boucherie, Rue Christine
Eugène Atget
1920s, printed 1956

Cour, rue de Valence, Eugène Atget French, Gelatin silver print from glass negative — Cour, rue de Valence
Eugène Atget
1922, printed 1956

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