Vigne vierge
Eugène Atget
French, 1857–1927
1900-10
An albumen silver photograph of a climbing vine on a wall, made by Eugène Atget to quietly record the overlooked textures and forms of everyday Paris.
What stops you is the dense, overlapping foliage—leaves rendered in a rich range of midtones and soft highlights that coalesce into a rhythmic, almost textile surface against the rough masonry.
Atget’s patient, documentary approach helped legitimize photography as a means of preserving vernacular urban life and influenced later documentary and modernist photographers who found beauty in the ordinary.
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
Approx. 8 11/16 × 6 9/16" (22 × 16.7 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Abbott-Levy Collection. Acquired through the generosity of Shirley C. Burden, and Family of Man Fund
Accession
1.1969.808
Palette
Exhibitions
