Versailles, Vase
1903/04
Medium
Albumen print
Dimensions
Image: 22.1 × 17.6 cm (8 3/4 × 6 15/16 in.); Paper: 22.1 × 17.8 cm (8 3/4 × 7 1/16 in.)
Classification
albumen silver print
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
124302
Art Historical Context
Step into the sun-dappled grandeur of the Palace of Versailles through Jean-Eugène-Auguste Atget's *Versailles, Vase* (1903/04), a poignant albumen print capturing an ornate vase amid the estate's timeless gardens. Atget, a pioneering French photographer (1857–1927), devoted decades to documenting the fading architectural wonders of Paris and its environs, preserving a pre-modern world on the brink of change. This image, taken during his meticulous surveys of Versailles—the opulent seat of French royalty under Louis XIV—highlights a single, elaborate vase, likely from the estate's sculpted lan...
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...