May 15, 2008 - Sale 2146

Sale 2146 - Lot 302

Price Realized: $ 9,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,500
ATGET, EUGÈNE (1857-1927) / ABBOTT, BERENICE (1898-1991)
"La Villette, fille publique faisant le quart, 19e." Silver print, 9 1/4x6 3/4 inches (23.5x17.1 cm.), with the "Eugene Atget Photograph, Collection Berenice Abbott" copyright hand stamp on verso. 1921; printed 1930s
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Additional Details

The Work of Atget, Modern Times, 71.
Berenice Abbott was first introduced to Eugène Atget's lyrical photographs in 1925, when she was working as Man Ray's assistant, in Paris. The following year she began to purchase prints from the aged artist and, in July of 1927, Atget sat for Abbott. In early August, when she came to deliver the prints she made, Abbott discovered Atget had died.
Atget's estate had been left to André Calmette, an old friend from his days as an actor. Calmette divided the work into two categories; half of the material consisted of pictures and negatives of historical Paris, which he gave to the collections of the Monuments Historiques; the remaining 1,400 plates and 8,000 prints were purchased by Abbott and gallerist Julien Levy, in 1928.
Inspired by Atget's vision, Abbott started printing his negatives in 1930-1931. Although there are thousands of vintage Atget photographs in museums and private collections, Abbott's early prints were often unique and are, therefore, quite rare.
Shortly after Atget's death, she began to popularize Atget's work, and in 1930, encouraged the publisher E. Weyhe, in New York, to produce Atget's first monograph. She continued to bring his pictures to a larger audience, with a major exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, in 1968. Because of the tireless efforts of Berenice Abbott, Eugene Atget became appreciated for his unique vision of 'documents pour artistes.'