Joueur d'Orgue Jean-Eugène-Auguste  Atget (French, 1857 -1927)

When this photograph of a Parisian organ-grinder was made, life on the street was a common form of entertainment. Cinema was a brandnew art and television was not yet imagined. Between 1898 and 1901, early in his career as a photographer, Eugène Atget made a series of portraits of the denizens of the rue. This picture belongs to a series of petits metiers, a common pictorial tradition since at least the seventeenth century. Always conscious of a world that was about to disappear, Atget published about eighty of his portraits of street tradespeople as postcards in 1905.

Except for this series, Atget’s photographs are usually devoid of people. We find quite the opposite in Joueur d’orgue, one of Atget’s few records of a person smiling. The tiny woman on the right simply radiates life, all the more so in contrast to her dour companion. This image of people isolated against a wall is an atypical work by Atget, yet it is emblematic of all his work. At once direct, simple, and straightforward, it contains great drama and mystery provided by these wonderful characters. . . .

- Stuart Alexander, Independent Curator and Scholar

Text excerpted from A Capital Collection: Masterworks from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, which is available for purchase in the Corcoran Shop. :: Click here to purchase this catalog online

:: View more Photography and Media Arts

Press | Site Map| Search| Need assistance? | Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2008, Corcoran Gallery of Art