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Eugène Atget
Tree-Lined Path, ca. 1910

At the turn of the 20th century, as old Paris was modernizing and ways of life common in the previous century were becoming extinct, Atget made it his project to document the city as it was and would no longer be. He made many thousands of negatives of city streets, shop windows, architectural details, parks, fountains, interiors, signage, alleyways, and trees.

The slow speed of his film dictated that he work in the morning before the streets were filled with movement, which would result in blurred pictures. This photograph of a tree-lined path in the Parc de Saint Cloud exemplifies the nostalgic feeling evident in much of his work. It shows a road leading seemingly to nowhere, a bleak path lined by bare, spindly trees. Silent witnesses to historical change, the trees are like sentinels powerless to guard against the passage of time.

Artwork Info

Artwork title
Tree-Lined Path
Artist name
Eugène Atget
Date created
ca. 1910
Classification
photograph
Medium
Albumen print
Dimensions
7 in. × 8 3/4 in. (17.78 cm × 22.23 cm)
Date acquired
1997
Credit
Collection SFMOMA
Accessions Committee Fund: gift of Frances and John Bowes, Shawn and Brook Byers, Jean and Jim Douglas, Mimi and Peter Haas, Evelyn D. Haas, Maria Monet Markowitz and Jerome Markowitz, Madeleine H. Russell, Judy and John Webb, and the Modern Art Council
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/97.145
Artwork status
Not on view at this time.

Other Works by Eugène Atget

See other works by Eugène Atget

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