Versailles, Chaste Venus
Eugène Atget (French, 1857–1927)
1922–1923
Medium
albumen print, gold toned
Dimensions
image: 18.1 × 22.6 cm · matted: 35.6 × 45.7 cm
Classification
Photograph
Department
Photography
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
1985.113
Tags
male
About this artwork
During the first quarter of the 20th century, Eugène Atget photographed the French urban experience. Periodically, from 1901 to 1926, Atget was particularly attracted to the grounds and gardens at the palace of Versailles, photographing its walks, fountains, and statues during different seasons. An eerie silence and mysteriousness frequently suffuses his images, as it does in this haunting photograph of Antoine Coysevox's bronze sculpture of Venus, positioned on a raised plinth facing the palace...