The J. Paul Getty Museum

The Panthéon

Object Details

Title:

The Panthéon

Artist/Maker:

Eugène Atget (French, 1857 - 1927)

Culture:

French

Place:

Paris, France (Place Created)

Date:

1924

Medium:

Gelatin silver chloride print on printing-out paper

Object Number:

90.XM.64.34

Dimensions:

17.8 × 22.6 cm (7 × 8 7/8 in.)

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Object Description

Eugène Atget made this atmospheric study across the place Sainte-Geneviève toward the back of the Panthéon, a church boldly designed to combine the splendor of Greece with the lightness of Gothic churches. The church's powerful colonnaded dome, Atget's primary point of interest, hovers in the background, truncated by the building in the left foreground.

In order to make the fog-veiled Panthéon visible when printing this negative, Atget had to expose the paper for a long period of time. As a consequence of the long printing, the two buildings in the foreground are overexposed, appearing largely as black silhouettes. Together they frame the Panthéon, rendered entirely in muted grays. This photograph exceeds documentation to become more a study of mood and atmospheric conditions than of architecture.

Provenance
Provenance
-

André Jammes

1990 -

Daniel Wolf, Inc.
Note: Agent for André Jammes

Exhibitions
Exhibitions
Atget's Magical Analysis: Photographs 1915-1927 (October 29, 1991 to January 5, 1992)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu), October 29, 1991 to January 5, 1992
The Man in the Street: Eugène Atget in Paris (June 20 to October 8, 2000)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), June 20 to October 8, 2000
Photographers of Genius (March 16 to July 25, 2004)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), March 16 to July 25, 2004
In Focus: Architecture (October 15, 2013 to March 2, 2014)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), October 15, 2013 to March 2, 2014
Bibliography
Bibliography

The Art Institute of Chicago, Marie-Thérèse Jammes and André Jammes. Niepce to Atget: The First Century of Photography (Chicago: Art Institute, 1977), cover.

Baldwin, Gordon. In Focus: Eugène Atget: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2000), pl. 36.