Arcueil-Cachan
Eugène Atget
French, 1857–1927
1925-27
A gelatin silver print in which Eugène Atget quietly records the Arcueil-Cachan aqueduct and its adjoining lane, aiming to preserve the character of Paris’s built environment with precise, reverent attention.
The picture is held together by the steady rhythm of massive, rough stone arches on the right balanced against a shadowy iron gate, trees, and a narrow dirt road that pulls the eye into a soft, silvery distance.
Atget’s unobtrusive, documentary gaze treated ordinary urban infrastructure as material for cultural memory, helping to found a modern photographic practice that influenced generations of documentary and modernist photographers.
Medium
Gelatin silver printing-out-paper print
Dimensions
Approx. 7 1/16 × 8 9/16" (18 × 21.8 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Abbott-Levy Collection. Acquired through the generosity of Shirley C. Burden, and Family of Man Fund
Accession
1.1969.1288
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
