Boulevard Auguste-Blanqui
Eugène Atget
French, 1857–1927
1926-27
A gelatin-silver printing-out photograph by Eugène Atget that quietly records the closed storefront and doorway at No. 9 Boulevard Auguste‑Blanqui, made to document the ordinary architecture of Paris before it changed.
What strikes you is the stillness and formality: an empty cobbled street facing a symmetrical façade of shuttered windows, carved wooden moldings, and textured glass, all bathed in warm, documentary sepia that turns everyday detail into a studied portrait.
One of many images in Atget’s project to archive the city, this picture helped found documentary photography as a way of preserving vernacular urban fabric and later inspired modernist and Surrealist artists to look at the city as material for art.
Medium
Gelatin silver printing-out-paper print
Dimensions
Approx. 6 1/2 × 8 1/2" (16.5 × 21.6 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Abbott-Levy Collection. Acquired through the generosity of Shirley C. Burden, and Family of Man Fund
Accession
1.1969.3580
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
