Café, Avenue de la Grande-Armée

Eugène Atget

1924–25 · Matte albumen silver print from glass negative · Photographs

Atget's interest in the texture of old Paris-in the animate, intimate air of places much lived in-ran counter to the prevailing popular taste for the Eiffel Tower, the Opéra, and other famous monuments and promenades. Characteristically, he never photographed the Champs-Élysées, though he did make one exposure on the avenue that extends it beyond the Arc de Triomphe, the Avenue de la Grande-Armée. Here, selecting an empty café bathed in early morning light and poised in readiness for the day's clientele, he managed to suggest the habits of the habitués, in absentia.

Artist

Eugène Atget

Date

1924–25

Medium

Matte albumen silver print from glass negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gilman Collection, Purchase, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gift, 2005