Friture (Fry Shop)

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Images(3)

Artist/Maker Eugène Atget (French, 1856 - 1927)

Printer Berenice Abbott (American, 1898 - 1991)

Datec. 1910, printed later

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 9 1/4 × 6 7/8 in. (23.5 × 17.5 cm) Sheet: 9 1/4 × 6 7/8 in. (23.5 × 17.5 cm) Mount: 13 × 10 in. (33 × 25.4 cm)

Credit LineGift of Barry H. Garfinkel, P1978, P1980

Object number1982.11

Not on view

DescriptionAfter a failed career as an actor, Eugène Atget began making photographs around 1888 and established himself as a commercial photographer in Paris in 1890, hoping that artists and illustrators would use his photographs as reference material. He turned to documenting the city of Paris itself—for which he would become famous instead—around 1897 and continued to do so until his death, taking numerous shots of traditional shops, churches, and houses. At the time, Paris was being transformed according to a modernization plan initiated by Emperor Napoleon III and carried out by Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, which included widening many boulevards, building the Paris Métro, and razing entire neighborhoods to create strategically placed parks and cultural destinations such as the Opéra. Atget did not acknowledge these modernizations directly but, rather, documented as much of Paris’s older architecture as he could, prior to its destruction, through an 8-by-10-inch view camera mounted on a wood tripod—rather antiquated equipment by the turn of the century. This photograph was probably made in 1910, when Atget undertook a series of photographs of boutiques that included other examples of fritures, or shops selling fried potatoes. It was printed later by the American photographer Berenice Abbott, who lived in Paris in the 1920s and served as a studio assistant to the artist Man Ray. Man Ray had met Atget and included a number of his images in a 1926 issue of the journal La Révolution surréaliste. Abbott, too, was deeply influenced by Atget’s style and became a huge proponent of his photography; upon his death, she purchased from his estate 8,000 prints and 1,400 negatives, many of which she printed and disseminated in the United States to raise awareness of his work. In 1931, she published a monograph on the artist. Bernard “Barry” H. Garfinkel is the father of the late David Garfinkel, Class of 1978, and of James Garfinkel, Class of 1980. The family has been integral to the building of Hamilton College’s collection of historical photography. This work was donated in 1982, the year the Emerson Gallery opened. (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017)

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Additional Details

Exhibition History 2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 56, illus.).

Provenance 1982: Hamilton College (Fred L. Emerson Gallery) by gift of Barry H. Garfinkel.

Markings Stamp: "EUGENE ATGET / PHOTOGRAPH / Printed by / Berenice Abbot" on verso at center in black ink

Published References Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 142.

Signature Not signed.

Inscribed No inscriptions noted.