Versailles, Vase par Ballin
Medium
Albumen print
Dimensions
Image/paper: 21.6 × 18 cm (8 9/16 × 7 1/8 in.)
Classification
albumen silver print
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
124262
Art Historical Context
In 1902, pioneering French photographer Jean-Eugène-Auguste Atget captured *Versailles, Vase par Ballin*, an exquisite albumen silver print now housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Photography and Media department. Measuring 21.6 × 18 cm, this intimate image focuses on a finely crafted vase attributed to the renowned silversmith Ballin, set against the grandeur of the Palace of Versailles. Atget, often called the "father of modern photography," dedicated his career to documenting the fading elegance of old Paris and its royal environs, preserving architectural details and decorative arts b...
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...