Palais-Royal

The severe elegance of this photograph of two of the arches of an arcade running along one of the sides of the garden of the Palais Royal in Paris is unusual in Eugène Atget's work. Because of its near symmetry and lack of discernible perspective, save in the foreground paving, the image seems more like an architectural elevation than a photograph. Atget probably hoped to sell it to architects who would find it useful for the information it gives about the building's proportions and details. However, the photograph is not quite balanced, as two additional flutes of the pilaster on the left are visible than of the pilaster on the right. The top edge of the photograph crops a line of balusters over each arch in such a way that they appear to be rows of beads. Very early, delicate, and shapely examples of gas lighting fixtures hang in the arches; beyond are visible the shuttered windows of one of the stores lining the arcade.

Atget made several views of the palace, its garden, and the arcades in the early 1900s. The last were designed by the architect Victor Louis (1731-1800) for Philippe Égalité (1747-93), a cousin of Louis XVI. Égalité, in the course of the French Revolution, infamously voted for the king's execution but was subsequently guillotined himself. In need of money in 1781, he had enclosed three sides of the large garden that ran beyond his family palace with arcades housing shops that would produce income. In the three stories above were apartments that were rented out for additional monies. They continue to be desirable residences today, looking out as they do on a tranquil and spacious garden in the heart of the city.

Originally published in Eugène Atget, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum by Gordon Baldwin (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2000), 42. ©2000, J. Paul Getty Trust.