25, Rue des Blancs Manteaux (Café, rue des Blancs Manteaux)

A formally dressed waiter stares at the camera from inside this cabaret while above him hangs a sign depicting an armored man lounging on a cannon; combined with the establishment's name, these two subjects create a strikingly masculine image. Although the presence of the waiter implies that this photograph is a portrait, Eugène Atget was actually documenting the elaborately gilded ironwork sign above the entrance, which dates from the 1700s. Atget photographed a number of such signs, including a baby Bacchus astride a wine cask, and the bucket and pulley at a well.