Austrian Embassy, 57 Rue de Varenne
Eugène Atget
French, 1857–1927
1905
An albumen silver print by Eugène Atget that records the richly ornamented salon of the Austrian Embassy, made as part of his effort to systematically document Paris’s interiors and architectural details for posterity.
What first strikes you is the ornate marble mantel and clock framed by a mirror that multiplies the room’s rococo moldings, chandeliers and floral-upholstered chairs into layered reflections, all rendered in soft sepia that gives the empty space a quietly theatrical stillness.
Taken within Atget’s larger project to archive a changing city, this work helped define documentary photography as a means of preserving vanishing interiors and ornamental culture and influenced later modernist and archival photographic practices.
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
6 7/8 × 8 3/8" (17.5 × 21.3 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Abbott-Levy Collection. Acquired through the generosity of Shirley C. Burden, and Family of Man Fund
Accession
1.1969.1539
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
