Getty Museum

[Wheat]

Creator

French Photographer · 1857–1927

PrintmakerArtist

Eugène Atget never called himself a photographer; instead he preferred "author-producer." A private, almost reclusive man, Atget first tried his hand at painting and acting, then began to photograph *vieux Paris* (Old Paris) in 1898. He photographed in part to create "documents," as he called his photographs, of architecture and urban views, but he supported himself by selling these photographs to

More on Getty ULAN

Date: 1900
Medium: Toned albumen silver print
Culture: French
Department: Photographs
Institution: Getty Museum

> In order to produce the "documents for artists" that the sign at his door advertised, it was necessary for Eugène Atget to be aware of what the subjects of contemporary art were and to gauge what kinds of images would be useful to painters, illustrators, set and fabric designers, and interior decorators in making their own work. Studies of plants were a recurrent theme in Atget's work, dating from the pictures of about 1900 of apple trees in bloom to those of nasturtium leaves in the 1920s. (See also: [84.XP.208.4](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/55711/eugene-atget-lys-lilies-french-1916-1919/), [90.XM.64.45](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/63480/eugene-atget-water-lilies-french-1890-1910/), [90.XM.48](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/63424/eugene-atget-bouillon-blanc-mullein-plant-french-about-1899/), [90.XM.124.3](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/64709/eugene-atget-laurier-rose-oleander-french-about-1900/), [2002.37.5](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/172724/eugene-atget-iris-french-about-1910/)) > > Adapted from *Eugène Atget*, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum by Gordon Baldwin (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2000), 48. ©2000, J. Paul Getty Trust.

View at Getty Museum ↗

The authoritative record is held by Getty Museum. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.

Get printable QR codes

Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.

Open this page

See at Getty Museum

Related across collections

Semantically similar works from Getty Museum and other institutions.