Parc de Saint Cloud

Numerous staircases were necessary to connect the various sections of the gardens on the sloping terrain of Saint-Cloud, a royal summer retreat on the River Seine. This one linked the terrace of the château to that of a horseshoe-shaped basin. Although decorative vases remained at the top of the flight of stairs when Eugène Atget made this photograph, the sculptures that once stood on the blocks of stone halfway up the flight had disappeared. His diagonal perspective resulted in a composition of abstract repeated forms, where curving stairs appear as the receding lines of a harmonious and rhythmic study.

From the 1700s on, many artists painted the gardens of Saint-Cloud, most often as a landscape or, in some examples, as the background for picnics, parties, and puppet shows. Atget made this image as part of his collection of "documents for artists," which were meant to be used as source material by all types of artists.