15, rue Maître-Albert

Eugène Atget

1912 · Gelatin silver print from glass negative · Photographs

Eloquent testimony to Atget’s keen regard for the expressions of common folk, this photograph was part of a self-assigned survey of storefronts and commercial signs. Atget ennobled the little grocery with its modest façade and rudimentary display (covered for lunch hour against the midday heat) and framed it simply, thus withdrawing it from the predictable realm of the picturesque.

Artist

Eugène Atget

Date

1912

Medium

Gelatin silver print from glass negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1991