Ambassade d'Autriche, 57 rue de Varenne
Eugène Atget
French, 1857–1927
1905-06
A photograph printed as an albumen silver print in which Eugène Atget records an ornate mantel and its mirror inside the Austrian Embassy, aiming to document Parisian interiors as both historical evidence and poetic remnants of a changing city.
What strikes you is the mirror’s doubling—an elaborately carved fireplace frame reflecting a dim room of draped chairs and chandeliers in soft, shadowy tones that make the scene feel vacant and suspended in time.
Part of Atget’s systematic archive of Paris, this image helped establish documentary photography as an artistic practice by turning ordinary architectural details and interiors into evocative records that influenced modernist and Surrealist visions.
Medium
Albumen silver 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
1.1969.1966
Palette
Exhibitions
