Looking at Atget

Versailles--Bassin du Sud
1904
Eugène Atget (French, 1857-1927)
Matte albumen silver print
7 x 8 3/4 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art: 125th Anniversary Acquisition. The Lynne and Harold Honickman Gift of the Julien Levy Collection, 2001
The French photographer, Eugene Atget produced one of the most influential bodies of photography in the twentieth century. Looking at Atget and the accompanying catalogue documents his work and also provides a closer look at the Museum's recently acquired group of 350 works by Atget from the estate of art dealer Julien Levy and Museum benefactors, Lynne and Harold Honickman.

The 120 works that make up Looking at Atget focuses on the responses to his work by Levy and the photographer Bernice Abbott, who were the first to introduce Atget's work to an American audience in 1927. Levy was an advocate of surrealism and he saw Atget as both a proto-surrealist and an artist who illuminated several aspects of photography.

The exhibition and book survey the variety of Atget's approaches to his subjects. Among the works are three of Atget's paper storage albums, as Atget had ordered them; a single topic exploration, such as the Parisian interiors; and his photographs of parks, such as Versailles and Tuileries, which demonstrate his diversity of approaches to subject matter and clients.

Interior of Madame D., Woman with a Small Private Income, boulevard du Port Royal
1909-10
Eugène Atget (French, 1857-1927)
Albumen silver print
8 9/16 x 6 15/16 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art: 125th Anniversary Acquisition. The Lynne and Harold Honickman Gift of the Julien Levy Collection, 2001
House of a Ragpicker, Montreuil Gate, Fortifications Zone
c. 1910
Eugène Atget (French, 1857-1927)
Gelatin silver chloride print
8 1/2 x 6 11/16 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art: 125th Anniversary Acquisition. The Lynne and Harold Honickman Gift of the Julien Levy Collection, 2001