Eugène Atget

printing-out-paper print, numbered '379' in the negative, titled and numbered '379' in pencil and with the photographer's 'Rue Campagne-Première, 17 bis' studio stamp, annotated '17 bis' in pencil, on the reverse, 1912

The photographer to Tristan Tzara, Paris

By descent to Marie-Therese Tzara

Christie's New York, 29 April 1999, Sale 9150, Lot 168

La Révolution Surréaliste 7, 15 June 1926, p. 6

The Work of Atget, Volume IV: Modern Times (The Museum of Modern Art, 1985), p. 128, pl. 92

Molly Nesbit, Atget's Seven Albums (New Haven, 1992), p. 132

Laure Beaumont-Maillet, Atget: Paris (Santa Rosa, 1992), p. 586

Gerry Badger, Eugene Atget 55 (London, 2001), unpaginated

Peter Barberie, Looking at Atget (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2005), pp. 55 and 94

Franz Roh and Jan Tschichold, FotoAuge (London: Thames and Hudson facsimile reprint of the 1929 original edition, 1977), pl. 1

Edward Lucie-Smith, The Invented Eye: Masterpieces of Photography, 1839-1914 (New York, 1975), pl. 152

Happy Birthday Photography: Bokelberg Sammlung (Kunsthaus Zürich, 1989), pl. 94

Grading this printing-out-paper print on a scale of 1 to 10--a 10 being a print with deep brown dark tones and highlights that retain all of their original detail--this striking print rates a strong 10. It has rich, dark eggplant tones, bright creamy highlights, and a smooth high-gloss surface. The photograph delivers a world of fascinating detail, from the scalloped lace on the corsets, to the individual price tags, to the reflection of leaves in the storefront window. This print is in generally very good condition. Some faint yellowing can be seen at the print's lower corners, but there does not appear to be any degradation of detail. In raking light, several soft and sharp handling creases are visible; these do not detract from the overwhelmingly fine appearance of this print. The print is trimmed to the image, as is customary, and only a portion of the negative number is visible. There is a tiny tear along the lower edge. The reverse of the print is appropriately age-darkened at the periphery.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This photograph comes originally from the collection of Tristan Tzara (1895-1963), poet, writer, and a founding father of the Dada movement in Zurich.  Tzara likely encountered Atget’s work in the 1920s, while living near the photographer’s studio on rue Campagne-Première.  Tzara would also undoubtedly have seen the Atget photographs reproduced in a famous 1926 issue of La Révolution Surréaliste, André Breton’s definitive Surrealist journal of the era.

Atget’s photographs, promoted by him as ‘Documents pour Artistes,’ were re-contextualized by the Parisian avant-garde, who saw in his images of Paris’s changing landscape, architecture, and street vendors, an unselfconscious, ‘automatic’ vision.   Man Ray, for instance, who also maintained a studio on rue Campagne-Première, met Atget in the mid-1920s and acquired a number of his photographs, images that Man Ray later described as having ‘a Dada or Surrealist quality about them’ (Looking At Atget, p. 54).  Among the Atget photographs that Man Ray and his fellow Surrealists favored were images of shop fronts, window reflections, and headless mannequins, as in the image offered here.  Three of Atget’s photographs were published without credit in the above-mentioned 1926 issue of La Révolution Surréaliste, including Corsets (Boulevard de Strasbourg), which illustrated Marcel Noll’s account of an erotically-charged dream.   

The Corsets image continued to be seen in a Surrealist context after Atget’s death.  A print was exhibited in 1929 in the avant-garde Film und Foto exhibition in Stuttgart and appeared as the first plate in the accompanying book Foto-Auge.  In 1936, New York gallerist Julien Levy included Corsets in his seminal volume Surrealism.