Eugène Atget

Berenice Abbott

1927 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

In the spring of 1927, Abbott invited Atget to sit for a portrait in her Paris studio. She made only three exposures that day: a standing pose, a frontal view, and this profile view. Unfortunately, Atget never saw the photographs. When Abbott arrived at his apartment a few months later to deliver the proofs, she found that the elderly photographer had died suddenly. This portrait was used as the frontispiece in the first book devoted to his work, Atget, Photographe de Paris (1930).

Artist

Berenice Abbott

Date

1927

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gift of Maria Morris Hambourg, in honor of John Szarkowski, 2020