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Saint Cloud
Eugène Atget1921
Fundacion MAPFRE
Madrid, Spain
Titled and numbered verso in pencil; artist's stamp verso. Atget neg. #1067.
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Details
- Title: Saint Cloud
- Creator: Eugène Atget
- Creator Lifespan: 1857/1927
- Creator Death Place: Paris (France)
- Creator Birth Place: Libourne, Gironda (France)
- Date Created: 1921
- Physical Dimensions: w23.49 x h17.78 cm (Without frame, without passepartout)
- Artist Biography: Eugène Atget (1857-1927) At first sight, Eugène Atget’s work can seem enigmatic and difficult to place but, as with all the greats, time has imbued his images with a translucency that has inspired generations of artists and continues to do so today. His work has been elevated to the status of a milestone in the history of photographic culture, a crucial point of reference for understanding the modern aesthetics which his pictures introduced in a more or less subtle way. In fact, despite having worked in virtual anonymity, by the time he died different artistic movements were already vying to claim his images as their own. For some, Atget’s work showed an affinity with Surrealist theory: the minute description of ordinary objects capable of evoking unconventional symbolisms, the latent enigma of his scenes, and the often heavy, metaphysical atmosphere of his landscapes. For others, he was simply an honest photographer training his lens on the streets, parks and people of a Paris far removed from the typical image of the metropolis, a photographer with no greater ambition than to create a systematic visual archive of a city in transformation. And then there were others who underscored the intrinsic sensibility of his vision, its poetry and its mystery. Atget’s approach to the landscape he photographed, and in which he found an inexhaustible plasticity, allowed him to return over and over again to the same themes and make them appear new and different each time. His austere, original framing and his ability to turn a particular theme or detail into a meaningful document of French culture have set a standard for subsequent generations of photographers. Echoes of Atget’s collective portrait of Paris can be found in August Sander’s portrayal of German society, in the American way of life captured by Walker Evans and Lee Friedlander, in each of the towns photographed by Paul Strand, and even in the images of a contemporary photographer like Fazal Sheikh, who regards Atget as one of his masters. All, and Atget foremost among them, have shown us that even the most inconsequential things can be interesting or appealing when they are photographed. Atget was born in Libourne in 1857 and died in Paris in 1927. He never received any formal training in photography and joined this up-and-coming profession of the 19th century after trying his hand somewhat unsuccessfully at others, such as copywriter and illustrator for a satirical magazine or actor in second-rate theatrical companies. He turned to photography in 1888, initially with the intention of earning a living by selling visual documents of the streets of Paris to artists. Later on his clientele expanded to include not only artists but craftsmen and history enthusiasts, as well as important institutions interested in the history of Paris, such as the Musée Carnavalet and the Bibliothèque Nationale. Atget described his photographs as “documents for artists” and never claimed that they were art in themselves. His career as a photographer was interrupted by World War One, but he returned to it afterwards and continued working until shortly before his death. Since that time, and partly thanks to the American photographer Berenice Abbott who acquired his legacy (today, those thousands of photographs are held at the MoMA in New York) and publicised his work as art, he has been widely recognised as one of the great masters of photography. Atget photographed “Old Paris”, the parts of the city overlooked during Baron Haussmann’s grand modernisation (and demolition) project of the 1850s to create a modern, spacious metropolis. He preferred to take pictures of streets and buildings with no passers-by, and used an 18 x 24 view camera that allowed him to capture even the tiniest details of the architecture. He produced a vast corpus of work (10,000 plates and thousands more copies), an immense archive of documents that portray working-class Paris: devoid of bourgeoisie, without the fantasies of the Ancien Régime, beyond the scope of the Belle Époque. Atget’s Paris was a hotchpotch of documents of French civilisation composed of ordinary settings such as domestic interiors, street stalls, taverns and parks, a city with a qualitative cultural difference that provided a visual statement of the spirit of French culture to match Balzac's literary enterprise in The Human Comedy. Atget’s overarching desire to “have all of Old Paris in his possession” recalls the encyclopaedic spirit of the 18th century, while his working method—using a view camera and contact prints, preferably albumen—reveals his debt to the photographers of the 19th century. And yet, as philosopher Walter Benjamin noted in the 1930s, his photographic vision was extraordinarily modern. Atget’s work—and the history of his reception by the critics—is crucial for understanding 20th-century photography, and given the recent popularity of documentary photography and the interest in portraying cities shown by the current generation of artists and photographers, today it seems more relevant than ever. It was for this reason that in 2011 Fundación MAPFRE organised the most important Atget retrospective ever held in Spain. The exhibition subsequently travelled to the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam, the Musée Carnavalet in Paris and the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, giving new generations a chance to experience for themselves, and for the first time in their own countries, the work of this unique photographer who made such a fundamental contribution to the history of photography. Carlos Gollonet
- Type: Photography
- Rights: ©COLECCIONES FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE / Fernando Maquieira
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