Eugène Atget

albumen print, numbered '11' by the photographer in pencil on the reverse, matted, framed, 1921

Acquired from the photographer by M. Miguet, circa 1925

By descent to Miguet's grandson, mid-1970s

Alain Paviot, Paris

Jill Quasha, New York, 1986

Private Collection, New York, 1986

Acquired by the Quillan Company from the above, 1990

Jill Quasha, The Quillan Collection of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Photographs (New York, 1991), pl. 16 (this print)

Other prints of this image:

La Revolution Surrealiste 7, 15 June 1926, S. 28 

John Szarkowski and Maria Morris Hambourg, The Work of Atget, Volume IV: Modern Times (The Museum of Modern Art, 1985), pl. 67

Clark Worswick, Berenice Abbott and Eugène Atget (Santa Fe, 2002), pl. 5

Peter Barberie, Looking at Atget (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2005, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 100

In Focus: Eugène Atget (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2000), pl. 30

Grading this albumen print on a scale of 1 to 10 - 10 being an albumen print that has deep brown dark tones and highlights that retain all of their original detail - this print surpasses the high grade of 10. Its dark tones are a rich red-brown, while the highlights are a light cream color. The print is essentially in excellent condition. When examined closely in raking light, a faint soft diagonal handling crease, about 2 ½ inches long, is visible in the center of right edge. Some minor rippling can also be seen in the print when it is viewed in raking light. None of these issues detracts from the fine appearance of this particularly strong albumen print.
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.

The image offered here comes from a series of photographs commissioned in 1921 by the Cubist painter André Dignimont, who intended to publish a book on Parisian prostitutes.  Although the volume was never realized, Atget's few photographs for the project are now among his most arresting and complex.  Taken in the working class area of Versailles, this study of a young woman standing in a doorway might be mistaken for a modern portrait.   For the audiences of Atget's time, however, the woman's livelihood would have been easily guessed from her attire—the short dress, the high lace-up boots, the fox fur around her shoulders—as well as the large painted number above the door.  One might expect something more sensational for a photograph of a prostitute, but in Atget's study, all traces of eroticism or pornography, long a part of the photographic tradition, are lacking.  What might have been salacious becomes instead a direct and moving photograph of an individual who returns Atget's gaze with a slight, quizzical smile.  It has been suggested that Dignimont, a collector of erotica, did not find the pictures to his liking and therefore did not acquire them. 

 Surprisingly little is known about Atget's life despite the voluminous literature devoted to his work.  For example, it is unknown precisely how or when he took up photography.  It has been established, however, that Atget opened a studio in 1890 where he provided Documents pour Artistes.  He walked the streets of Paris daily, carrying his cumbersome tripod-mounted view camera that he loaded with glass plates.  His methods, producing albumen prints from glass-plate negatives, were already antiquated when this photograph was taken in 1921.  As Versailles, Maison Close, Petite Place, makes clear, it was Atget's unique ability to combine the old Paris with the new, 'modern' Paris that gives his work its resonance.   

This image, Versailles, Maison Close, Petite Place, was filed by Atget in a category of work he referred to as 'Picturesque Paris,' which included forms of popular entertainment, circuses, storefronts, mannequins, and images of tradespeople. The prostitutes are among the least numerous of all of Atget's subjects, and consequently extant prints of them are scarce.  As of this writing, three prints of this image have been located in institutional collections: The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; and The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts.  Another print of the image was  included in a unique, extra-illustrated copy of the book by Cesare Lombroso and G. Ferrero, La Femme Crimenelle et La Prostituée, sold in these rooms in 1993 (Sale 6407, Lot 237).