Parc de Sceaux
Eugène Atget
French, 1857–1927
1925
A gelatin silver print by Eugène Atget that quietly records a worn stone staircase and a solitary classical statue in Parc de Sceaux, made to document the overlooked architectural details and atmosphere of Paris and its outskirts.
What strikes you is the empty, weathered flight of steps leading into shadowed trees and the lone statue—rendered in soft, muted tones that lend the scene a hushed, slightly melancholic stillness.
Atget’s unpeopled, documentary photographs helped redefine photography as a means of preserving a vanishing urban past and treating everyday architectural fragments as subjects of artistic and historical value.
Medium
Gelatin silver printing-out-paper 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
1.1969.2703
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
