Au Lion d'Or. 16 rue Volta
Eugène Atget
French, 1857–1927
1901
An albumen silver print by Eugène Atget that calmly records the façade of a small Paris shop, made as part of his project to document the city’s vanishing streets and everyday architecture.
You’re struck by the carved lion above the doorway and the steady rhythm of vertical iron bars flanking a slightly ajar door, all seen through a soft, dusty tonal haze and faint streaks of light that lend the scene a quiet, almost ghostly stillness.
As part of Atget’s methodical archive of Old Paris, this image helped establish documentary photography as a means of preservation and study and influenced later modernists and Surrealists who found meaning in ordinary urban details.
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
Approx. 8 11/16 × 7 1/16" (22 × 18 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Abbott-Levy Collection. Acquired through the generosity of Shirley C. Burden, and Family of Man Fund
Accession
1.1969.2378
Palette
Exhibitions
