Versailles, Bosquet de l' Arc de Triomphe
Medium
Albumen print
Dimensions
Image: 21.9 × 17.7 cm (8 5/8 × 7 in.); Paper: 21.9 × 17.8 cm (8 5/8 × 7 1/16 in.)
Classification
albumen silver print
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
124223
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
In 1904, French photographer Jean-Eugèneuste Atget captured the *Versailles, Bosquet de'Arc de Triomphe*, an albumen silver print now housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's and Media department. This 21.9 × 17.7 cm image depicts a secluded grove within the opulent gardens of the Palace of Versailles, spotlighting the Arc de Triomphe bosquet—a symmetrical niche framed by manicured hedges and paths, evoking the grandeur of Louis XIV's 17th-century landscape designed by André Le Ntre. Atget (1857–1927), a pioneering documentary photographer, obsessively recorded vanishing Parisian architecture and gardens in the early 20th century, preserving them against rapid urbanization. His unadorned, straight-ahead style—devoid of people or embellishments—anticipated modernist photography and inspired surrealists like Man Ray. This work exemplifies his mission to archive France's cultural heritage. The albumen print medium, using egg-white-coated paper sensitized with silver salts, yields exquisite tonal range and sharp detail, a hallmark of 19th-century processes Atget favored for their fidelity. At once a historical record and poetic vista, it invites visitors to wander Versailles' timeless elegance through a lens frozen in amber.
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...