Friday, April 3, 2015

Versailles

Versailles
1903

These albumen silver prints from glass negatives by Eugène Atget had their origin in the earliest decades of the 20th century. Versailles and other former royal domains near Paris were permitted a certain suggestive shabbiness in those days, appropriate to their venerability. That atmosphere has by now of course been banished forever in favor of slick restoration and massive tourism.

Versailles
1923

Versailles
1902

Versailles
1923

Versailles
1923

Versailles
1901

Versailles
1922

Versailles
1924

Versailles
1903

Parc de Sceaux
1925

Saint Cloud
1923

Saint Cloud
1921

Many of these particular prints were once owned by Berenice Abbott (1898-1991), the New York photographer who did more than any other individual to establish Atget's posthumous fame. Much of the Abbott collection is now at the Metropolitan Museum, where these images are made available.