Getty Museum
Arbre (Garche) Hêtre
Creator
Eugène AtgetFrench Photographer · 1857–1927
All works by this person →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
- 1910–1915
- Medium
- Albumen silver print
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
- Object ID
- 7de820ad-77ba-44d3-bb13-4a75534b6bca
In Eugène Atget's study of a dignified tree, shadows on the ground mirror the bare branches above. Atget created this symmetrical image when the sun was high, allowing a horizontal axis to center the composition. Although it is a simple subject, the image's nervous radial patterning of branch and shadow convey an unsettling dancing energy. The play of light and shadow was an infrequent subject for Atget, who masterfully exploited their properties in this photograph. Artists, to whom Atget marketed his work, would certainly have found this photograph to be a valuable source of imagery when executing drawings and paintings of landscapes.
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