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Avenue des Gobelins

A work made of gelatin silver printing out paper print.

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  • A work made of gelatin silver printing out paper print.

Date:

1925

Artist:

Jean-Eugène-Auguste Atget
French, 1857–1927

About this artwork

Jean-Eugéne-Auguste Atget, who worked as a commercial photographer, preferred to label his pictures “document for artists” rather than works of art. From the late 1880s until his death, he numbered and sequenced thousands of his prints with an archivist’s dedication. This image of a store window on the avenue des Gobelins comes from the large series Picturesque Paris, begun in 1897. In the last decade of Atget’s career, the series swelled as he devoted more attention to photographing the city’s modern face. Man Ray and Berenice Abbott gravitated toward the elder Atget’s enigmatic views and adopted him as a forefather. Abbott purchased Atget’s negatives after his death and later sold a share of the collection to Julien Levy. As a collector and curator, Levy was instrumental in promoting Atget as an important artist—a reputation that would have come as a surprise to the photographer.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Jean-Eugène-Auguste Atget

Title

Avenue des Gobelins

Place

Libourne (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1925

Medium

Gelatin silver printing out paper print

Dimensions

Image/paper: 23 × 18 cm (9 1/16 × 7 1/8 in.)

Credit Line

Julien Levy Collection, Gift of Jean and Julien Levy

Reference Number

1978.1042

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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