Page 26 - Studio International - December 1971

1For details of Atget's life, the most helpful Luxembourg gardens, Fontainebleau, the Seine and possibility should be allowed for, of course, that Van
discussions so far are those by Jean Leroy ('Atget et its bridges, farms, old signs, and towns around Paris Gogh himself had been influenced by camera
son Temps', Terre d'Images, no. 3 [May—June 19641, (pp xxiv—xxv). distortions. However, after postulating Atget's
357-372); R. E. Martinez ('Eugène Atget in Our 10 Eugene Atget', 654. indebtedness to him I was delighted to come upon a
Time', Camera /XLV December 1966], pp 56, 65-6); 11 I would like to take this opportunity to express my small black-and-white reproduction of a painting of a
and Miss Berenice Abbott, passim. Of these M Leroy's gratitude for the helpfulness shown me at the Museum tree done by Atget in the late 189os (Leroy, 'Atget et
appears much the most thoroughly researched. M of Modern Art, the Bibliothèque Nationale, and son Temps', 359). According to MM Leroy and
Leroy's dating of the start of Atget's photographic the George Eastman House in the course of my Martinez, Atget had very briefly tried to succeed as a
career in 1899 seems rather odd, however, since the researches. painter before turning to photography; and the
albums of prints in the Bibliothèque Nationale that 12'Atget; Forerunner' (November), p 76. texture of this painting is pure Van Gogh.
Atget himself made up are dated from 1898 on. 13 This is a partial list of professions to which he 20 It is noteworthy how important a role is played by
2Abbott, 'Eugene Atget', Creative Art, V (1929), 656. catered: designers, illustrators, amateurs of Old Paris, street surfaces (snow-covered, rain-washed) in four
3Arthur D. Trottenberg, introd. to A Vision of Paris theatrical decorators, cinema (Pathé Freres and many of the most memorable city photographs of Alfred
(New York, 1963), p 28. others), architects, tapestry makers, couturiers, theatre Stieglitz.
4I suspect, however, that a wholemonograph could be directors, sign painters, editors, sculptors and painters, 21 Vision of Paris, p 14.
written by following up the tips given by Ferdinand among them Bourgain, Vallet, Dunoyer de Segonzac, 22 See especially The Photographs of Jacques Henri
Reyher in six pages of brilliant notes to an exhibition Vlaminck, Utrillo, Braque, Kisling, Foujita, and Lartigue, introd. John Szarkowski (New York, 1963).
of Atget's work that he organized twenty years ago many more. Abbott, World of Atget, p xx. 23 See also Camera, XLV (December 1966), p 6o.
(`Atget', Photo Notes [Fall 1948], pp 16-21), and I 14 The case for such an explanation is put best in 24 The pictures I have just described are all to be found
regret not coming upon them before the present article Miss Abbott's two articles. in Atget, Photographe—respectively pp 94,53,56 and
was finished. 15 Abbott, 'Eugene Atget', 652. 52.
5Abott, 'Eugene Atget', 654. 16 Abbott, World of Atget, p xx. 25 In an admirable brief article that I read after this
6Jean Leroy, 'Who Was Eugene Atget ?' Camera 17 See, for example, Paul Martin, Victorian Snapshots one was virtually finished, Mr Leslie Katz well
[special Atget issue], XLI (December 1962), p 7. It is (London, 1939). remarks that Atget 'finds nothing exceptional
possible, however, that M Leroy may have been 18 Vision of Paris, p 43; Camera (special Atget issue), unnatural. For him deviation is an exposition of
thinking of a photograph by Atget of an anonymous p 16. In the rest of the paper I shall designate these vitality, decay an aspect of fertility, garbage the
painting, a print of which photograph is in the George two works by 'V' and 'C' respectively in referring to produce of consumption; waning is as admirable as
Eastman House collection. photographs not illustrated in this article; and I shall waxing, disillusion as organic as illusion.' (`The Art of
7 Eugene Atget; Forerunner of Modern Photography', likewise designate by their initials Miss Abbott's Eugene Atget', Arts Magazine, XXXVI [May—June
U.S. Camera, I (December 1940), p 70. World of Atget and her Atget, Photographe de Paris, 1962], p 35.)
8 Vision of Paris, p 22. pref. Pierre Mac-Orlan (New York, 1930). The bulk
9To the ones named by Mr Trottenberg at least the of Atget's best published work is to be found in these
following mentioned by Miss Abbott in her four items.
introduction to The World of Atget (New York, 1964) 19 See, for example, 'Van Gogh's Bedroom', 'Van
must be added : vehicles, interiors, courtyards, the Gogh's Chair', and 'The All Night Café'. The 8 Stream by angular wall
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