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Eugene Atget
(1857-1927)
'ST CLOUD'
arrowroot print, titled and numbered '1252' by the photographer in pencil and with his 'Rue Campagne-Premiere, 17 bis' studio stamp, annotated '17 bis' by the photographer in pencil, on the reverse, 1924
7 1/8 by 8 7/8 in. 18.1 by 22.5 cm.
Provenance
Abbott-Levy Collection, 1968
Literature
Szarkowski and Hambourg, Atget: Volume III, pl. 63
The six Atget photographs offered here are duplicate photographs from the celebrated Abbott-Levy Collection of Atget's work at The Museum of Modern Art. Berenice Abbott first saw prints by Atget in 1925, while serving as an assistant in Man Ray's Paris studio. She sought out the reclusive photographer and, in her own words, purchased "as many prints as I could afford to pay for from my meager wages."
She also persuaded Atget to sit for his portrait.
After Atget's death in 1927, Abbott rescued the bulk of his work from probable obscurity by purchasing some 5000 prints and 1300 glass plate negatives from his estate. In this she was assisted by Julien Levy in New York, who had, as a student in Paris, purchased many of Atget's photographs himself.
For the next four decades, Abbott worked to promote Atget's reputation, printing from his negatives and exhibiting and publishing his work. In 1968, The Museum of Modern Art purchased the extensive collection from Abbott and has continued her efforts in the fields of preservation, scholarship, and exhibition. The definitive study of Atget's oeuvre to date is the Museum's The Work of Atget by John Szarkowski and Maria Morris Hambourg, a series of four volumes which accompanied exhibitions held at the Museum from 1981 to 1985.