Porte Cluny

Eugène Atget

1898

An albumen silver print photograph in which Eugène Atget methodically records a carved stone gateway in Paris, aiming to preserve the city's vanishing architectural details.

The image strikes you with its quiet, measured perspective: a rounded arch flanked by fluted columns and worn steps leads the eye through a series of dark doorways into a sunlit courtyard, while dappled leaves trace soft shadows across the stone.

Part of Atget’s systematic survey of Old Paris, this work helped establish a documentary yet poetic photographic language—valued for its archival precision and later admired by Surrealists and modern photographers.

Palette

Art Terms

Albumen silver print Photography Documentary photography Architecture Architectural fragment Built environment

Exhibitions

French Photographs: Daguerre to Atget

1945

The Work of Atget: The Art of Old Paris

1982

The Work of Atget: Old France

1981

Photographs Before Surrealism

1968