Editing Eugène Atget (section)

==Biography==
[[File:Libourne 33 Maison natale Atget 2013.jpg|thumb|Atget's birthplace in Libourne]]

=== Early years ===
'''Jean-Eugène-Auguste Atget''' was born 12 February 1857 in [[Libourne]]. His father, carriage builder Jean-Eugène Atget, died in 1862, and his mother, Clara-Adeline Atget née Hourlier died shortly after; he was an orphan at age seven. He was brought up by his maternal grandparents in [[Bordeaux]] and after finishing secondary education joined the [[merchant navy]].<ref name="bio2">[[#krase|Paris]]: pp. 240–246</ref><ref name="az2">[[#AZ|Photographers A–Z]]: p. 17</ref>

=== Moving to Paris ===
Atget moved to Paris in 1878. He failed the entrance exam for acting class but was admitted when he had a second try. Because he was drafted for military service he could attend class only part-time, and he was expelled from drama school.<ref name="bio2"/><ref name="az2"/>

Still living in Paris,<ref>12 Rue des Beaux-Arts</ref> he became an actor with a travelling group, performing in the Paris suburbs and the provinces. He met actress Valentine Delafosse Compagnon, who became his companion until her death in 1926. He gave up acting because of an infection of his [[vocal cords]] in 1887, moved to the provinces and took up painting without success. When he was thirty he made his first photographs, of [[Amiens]] and [[Beauvais]], which date from 1888.<ref name="bio2"/><ref name="az2"/>

=== Photography and documents for artists ===
In 1890, Atget moved back to Paris<ref>5 Rue de la Pitié</ref> and became a professional photographer, supplying ''documents'' for artists:<ref>{{Citation | author1=Hannavy, John | title=Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography | date=2005 | publisher=Taylor & Francis Ltd | isbn=978-0-203-94178-2 }}</ref> studies for painters, architects, and stage designers.<ref name="bio2"/><ref name="az2"/>

Starting in 1898, institutions such as the [[Musée Carnavalet]] and the [[Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris]] bought his photographs. The latter commissioned him ca. 1906 to systematically photograph old buildings in Paris. In 1899 he moved to [[Montparnasse]].<ref name="bio2"/><ref>17bis Rue Campagne-Première</ref>

While being a photographer Atget still called himself an actor, giving lectures and readings.<ref name="bio2"/>

During [[World War I]] Atget temporarily stored his archives in his basement for safekeeping and almost completely gave up photography. Valentine's son Léon was killed at the front.<ref name="bio2"/>

In 1920–21, he sold thousands of his negatives to institutions. Financially independent, he took up photographing the parks of [[Gardens of Versailles|Versailles]], [[Château de Saint-Cloud|Saint-Cloud]] and [[Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine|Sceaux]] and produced a series of photographs of prostitutes.<ref name="bio2"/>

=== Later years and creative heritage ===
[[Berenice Abbott]], while working with [[Man Ray]], visited Atget in 1925, bought some of his photographs, and tried to interest other artists in his work.<ref name="bio2"/> She continued to promote Atget through various articles, exhibitions and books, and sold her Atget collection to the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in 1968.<ref>[[Anne Tucker]], Profile of Berenice Abbott, [http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2875919-the-woman-s-eye ''The Woman's Eye''] ([[Alfred A. Knopf]], 1973), p. 77.</ref>

In 1926, Atget's partner Valentine died,<ref name="bio2"/> and before he saw the full-face and profile portraits that Abbott took of him in 1927, showing him “slightly stooped…tired, sad, remote, appealing”,<ref name=":0" /> Atget died on 4 August in 1927, in Paris.<ref name="bio2" /><ref name="az2"/>

=== Atget and biographical myth ===
At the moment, not many reliable facts from Atget’s life are known. It is believed that Atget was poor, while at the same time, there is an assumption that the photographer’s cramped financial circumstances are a myth established by later researchers in attempts to create the image of a romantic artist.<ref name="36 essays on photographers">[[Ekaterina Vasileva (art historian)|Vasilyeva E.]] (2022) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/374842919_Vasilyeva_E_2022_36_essays_on_photographers_St_Petersburg_Palmira_255_p 36 essays on photographers]. St. Petersburg: Palmira. P. 18-24.</ref> In his research, [[John Szarkowski]]<ref>Szarkowski J. Atget. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2004.</ref> cited a fragment of Atget’s correspondence with Paul Leon, a professor at the [[Collège de France]], an employee of the Commission on Historical Monuments and one of the top officials of the French Ministry of Culture (French), from which it follows that they sold 2,600 negatives for 10,000 francs. This is one of the largest, but not the only lifetime sales of Atget.