Platform of the Pont Neuf. Paris (1st arrondissement), 1911. Photograph by Eugène Atget (1857-1927). Paris, musée Carnavalet.
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Reference: 25439-4
Eugène Atget was born in Libourne to a couple of artisans from the Paris suburbs. He was orphaned at the age of five. After a short secondary education, he embarked as a cabin boy on an ocean liner and worked, from 1875 to 1877, on lines serving South America. Around 1897, he embarked on a …
Eugène Atget was born in Libourne to a couple of artisans from the Paris suburbs. He was orphaned at the age of five. After a short secondary education, he embarked as a cabin boy on an ocean liner and worked, from 1875 to 1877, on lines serving South America. Around 1897, he embarked on a comprehensive photographic enterprise of views of Paris. Atget's main target audience was amateurs of Paris history and cultural institutions (libraries, museums...). These institutions were in the process of collecting important documentary photographic collections, notably on the monuments of Paris, and would buy thousands of photographs from the photographer. The series, entitled "Topography of Old Paris" was produced between 1906 and 1915: Atget systematically photographed each arrondissement to meet the needs of the topographic files of the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris. Eugène Atget made all of his own prints in his apartment and filed them in albums that he regularly presented to his clients. A numbering system allowed him to replace in the albums the pictures sold by new prints. Around 1921-1925, Atget met Berenice Abbott and then Man Ray, who bought works from him, followed by other famous artists such as Georges Braque, André Derain, Maurice Utrillo, Maurice de Vlaminck, André Dunoyer de Segonzac, Moïse Kisling and Tsugouharu Foujita. The prints of his photographs are mainly held in Paris at the Carnavalet Museum, the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Eugène Atget died on August 4, 1927 in Paris. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)