Versailles, vase par Ballin
Eugène Atget
French, 1857–1927
1905
A 1905 albumen silver print by Eugène Atget depicting an ornate Versailles urn, made as part of his methodical effort to record the built and decorative heritage of France.
Composed head‑on, the large urn dominates the frame—the diamond‑patterned body and snarling animal handles rendered in sharp tonal detail against a softly blurred garden, so an architectural fragment reads like a monumental portrait.
One of many images in Atget’s visual inventory, it helped legitimize photography as a tool for preservation and study of cultural ornament and later influenced modern artists who drew on found details and formal clarity.
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
Approx. 8 9/16 × 7 1/16" (21.8 × 18 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Abbott-Levy Collection. Acquired through the generosity of Shirley C. Burden, and Family of Man Fund
Accession
1.1969.130
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
