Saint-Cloud, Tree Roots, Saint Cloud Park

Resembling an Art Nouveau drawing, the sinuous roots of this tree snake about a rock at the foot of a wall in the old royal park of Saint-Cloud, outside Paris. This picture is one of a group of studies of tree roots that Eugène Atget made in this park in 1906 (see 90.XM.64.44). His views of trees are common, of their roots, rare (see also 84.XM.1034.16, 90.XM.64.47, 90.XM.64.48, and 90.XM.64.50). It has been suggested that his images of components of trees may relate to his contemporaneous experience in photographing increasingly specific details of architectural elements. More fancifully (and anthropomorphically), as a tenacious man Atget may have admired the articulation of the tree's elaborated system for survival, both drawing up nourishment and anchoring itself to the ground. In any case, by making this study of the interwoven organic textures of wood, stone, crumbling leaf, and earth, Atget expanded the range of the documentary photograph to include an unexpected subject seldom treated by other photographers. The seemingly commonplace aspect of this image gives it a surprising modernity.

Originally published in Eugène Atget, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum by Gordon Baldwin (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2000), 44. ©2000, J. Paul Getty Trust.