Photographs, Including Works from the Collection of Ernesto Esposito
Photographs, Including Works from the Collection of Ernesto Esposito
Eugène Atget
'Porte de Montreuil' (Villa d'un chiffonier)
Lot Closed
November 16, 12:02 PM GMT
Estimate
25,000 - 35,000 EUR
Lot Details
Description
Eugène Atget
1857 - 1927
'Porte de Montreuil' (Villa d'un chiffonier)
gold-toned gelatin silver print, numbered '123' in the negative, titled and numbered indistinctly in pencil and with the photographer's 'Rue Campagne-Première, 17 bis' studio stamp, annotated '17 bis' in pencil, on the reverse, framed, 1912
image: 22.8 by 17.7 cm (9 by 7 in.)
frame: 50.8 by 43.5 cm (20 by 17⅛ in.)
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Eugène Atget
1857 - 1927
'Porte de Montreuil' (Villa d'un chiffonier)
tirage argentique viré d’or, numeroté '123' dans le négatif, titré et numeroté indistinctement au crayon et avec le tampon du photographe 'Rue Campagne-Première, 17 bis' et annoté '17 bis' au crayon au verso, encadré, 1912
image: 22.8 x 17.7 cm (9 x 7 in.)
cadre: 50.8 x 43.5 cm (20 x 17⅛ in.)
Butterfield & Butterfield, San Francisco, 17 November 1999, Lot 4048
Bernice Abbot, The World of Atget (New York, 1964), pl. 135
Molly Nebit, Atget’s Seven Albums (New Haven: Yale University, 1992), pl. 12
Atget’s Paris (Paris, 1992), p. 776
John Szarkowski et al., Atget (New York, 2000), p. 76
In Focus: Eugène Atget (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2000), p. 58
'His gaze was direct and frank, but he, more than any of his contemporaries, was able to make the imaginary co-exist with the real. And thus he invented modern photography'.
Laure Beamount-Maillet, In Focus: Eugène Atget (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2000), p. 25.
Eugène Atget’s images often depict a version of Paris that is foreign to the contemporary viewer, a Paris mostly devoid of vehicles and pedestrians, and 'Porte de Montreuil' (Villa d'un chiffonier) (or Ragpicker's House) is no exception. Here, Atget gives us a glimpse into the life of those who lived on the very outskirts of the city without actually showing us its inhabitants. Ragpickers, who combed through and resold the discarded belongings of others, were some of Paris' most poverty-stricken residents. Comprising about five thousand of the city's population, many of them lived in shed-like, temporary houses. The house pictured here is decorated with stuffed animals, dolls and leaves. It was ‘remarkable that Atget was allowed to so closely infringe on a stranger’s dwelling’ (In Focus, p. 57).
Other prints of this image are in the following collections: the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (94.XM.108.6); and The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1.1969.991).