Eugène AtgetFrench, 1857–1927Avenue des Gobelins
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “Avenue des Gobelins” now? Collection: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.
Chicago, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
Jean-Eugéne-Auguste Atget, who worked as a commercial photographer, preferred to label his pictures “document for artists” rather than works of art. From the late 1880s until his death, he numbered and sequenced thousands of his prints with an archivist’s dedication. This image of a store window on the avenue des Gobelins comes from the large series Picturesque Paris, begun in 1897. In the last decade of Atget’s career, the series swelled as he devoted more attention to photographing the city’s modern face. Man Ray and Berenice Abbott gravitated toward the elder Atget’s enigmatic views and adopted him as a forefather. Abbott purchased Atget’s negatives after his death and later sold a share of the collection to Julien Levy. As a collector and curator, Levy was instrumental in promoting Atget as an important artist—a reputation that would have come as a surprise to the photographer.
Art Institute of ChicagoCC BY 4.0
Details
- Accession number
- 1978.1042
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Image: Art Institute of Chicago — © the artist or rights holder
In the life of Eugène Atget
The whole life1878–1927 · Workplace
Paris
1925
Meeting Berenice Abbott
Berenice Abbott visits Atget, buys several photographs, and tries to interest other artists in his work.
15 June 1926
The eclipse in a Surrealist journal
Atget's Pendant l'éclipse appears in the seventh issue of La Révolution surréaliste.
4 August 1927
Died
