Versailles, maison close, Petite Place
Eugène Atget
French, 1857–1927
March 1921
An albumen silver photograph by Eugène Atget that quietly documents the worn facade of a modest house in Versailles as part of his systematic effort to record everyday Parisian buildings before they vanished.
The scene arrests you with its hushed stillness — sunlight carving sharp shadows across shuttered windows, an ornately carved doorway set in a weathered plaster wall, and a cobbled curb that all suggest the traces of ordinary life absent from the street.
Works like this helped define documentary urban photography by preserving vernacular architecture and influencing later modernists and Surrealists who found poetic, archival value in empty, ordinary cityscapes.
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
6 3/4 × 8 7/16" (17.2 × 21.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Abbott-Levy Collection. Acquired through the generosity of Shirley C. Burden, and Family of Man Fund
Accession
1.1969.2
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
