Cour de Rohan

Eugène Atget made this moody study from a higher vantage point than he usually employed. This departure from his usual practice--a street-level perspective--suggests that he may have been commissioned to photograph this courtyard, where a leafless tree struggles upward as a living contrast to its crumbling surroundings.

In a letter to the director of the École des Beaux-Arts, Atget declared that his collection, meaning his prints and negatives, included "all of Old Paris." To Atget, it was important not to record popular destinations and fashionable districts but to create "artistic documents . . . of old hotels" and "historic or curious houses." These urban views were ideal images for his "documents for artists," a collection of photographs available for purchase by artists as source material for their work.