Hôtel Carnavalet, rue Sévigné
(1900-1927)
from the Picturesque Corners of Old Paris (Coins Pittoresques du Vieux Paris) series in the Art in old Pari series 1898–1927
Medium
albumen silver photograph
Measurements
22.3 × 17.5 cm irreg. (image) 22.7 × 17.7 cm irreg. (sheet)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Patrick Pound through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program, 2020
Public domain
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
In 1890–91 the photographer Eugène Atget advertised himself as a supplier of images for artists and craftsmen: Documents pour artistes. This required images that were direct, providing artists with details from which to model their work. Over time, Atget came to focus almost exclusively on documenting the changing face of Paris and the effects of Baron Haussmann’s large-scale renovation of the city. Atget continued to use nineteenth-century technologies, notably a large glass-plate camera and albumen silver papers, well into the twentieth century. The resulting photographs have a stillness and appear both of their time and otherworldly. Atget amassed an extraordinary archive of over eight thousand negatives, arranged into subjects and categories.