Versailles, Le Parc

Eugène Atget

1906

An albumen silver print in which Atget quietly documents a worn Versailles housefront—stone steps, a birdcage, and a small child silhouetted in the doorway—as part of his effort to record disappearing everyday urban details.

The image arrests you with its rough, tactile stone surface and the sharp contrast of sunlight and shadow that frames the dark doorway and the tiny figure within, while a cat dozes on the uneven cobbles, lending the scene a lived‑in stillness.

Atget’s meticulous street studies helped redefine photography’s role as a recorder of vernacular urban life, preserving ordinary architecture and moments that later influenced Surrealists and documentary photographers.

Palette

Exhibitions

French Photographs: Daguerre to Atget

1945

Photographs Before Surrealism

1968

The Work of Atget: The Art of Old Paris

1982

The Work of Atget: Old France

1981