Versailles, Bosquet de l' Arc de Triomphe
Medium
Albumen print
Dimensions
Image/paper: 17.4 × 21.3 cm (6 7/8 × 8 7/16 in.)
Classification
albumen silver print
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
124047
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Step into the meticulously manicured gardens of Versailles through Jean-Eugène-Auguste Atget's *Versailles, Bosquet de l'Arc de Triomphe* (1901), an albumen silver print that captures a serene grove featuring a charming Arc de Triomphe folly. Atget, a pioneering French photographer, devoted his career to documenting the fading architectural treasures of Paris and its surroundings, creating an invaluable visual archive before widespread modernization erased them. This intimate 17.4 × 21.3 cm image exemplifies Atget's straightforward, unmanipulated style, emphasizing texture, light, and shadow in the lush bosquet—a secluded garden compartment designed by André Le Nôtre in the 17th century for Louis XIV's opulent estate. The albumen print medium, with its warm tones and fine detail from egg-white emulsion on paper, was a hallmark of 19th-century photography, lending a timeless glow to the scene. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Photography and Media department, this work highlights Atget's cultural legacy: his images influenced modern photographers like Berenice Abbott and Man Ray, preserving Versailles' grandeur for future generations and inviting us to ponder the interplay of nature, history, and human artistry.
About the Artist
Jean-Eugène-Auguste Atget · 1857–1927
Jean-Eugène-Auguste Atget was born on February 12, 1857, in Libourne, France, to working-class parents—a carriage maker father who died in 1862 and a mother who passed away soon after, orphaning him at age six or seven. Raised by his maternal grandparents in Bordeaux, Atget briefly pursued a seafaring life before moving to Paris in the late 1870s to study acting at the Conservatoire d'art dramatiq...