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EUG+NE ATGET (French, 1857-1927) VERSAILLES (CYPARISSE PAR FLAMEN) titled and numbered "Versailles 6

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:20,000.00 - 30,000.00 USD
EUG+NE ATGET (French, 1857-1927) VERSAILLES (CYPARISSE PAR FLAMEN) titled and numbered  Versailles 6
EUG+NE ATGET (French, 1857-1927) VERSAILLES (CYPARISSE PAR FLAMEN) titled and numbered "Versailles 6363" by the artist in pencil on verso vintage albumen print 81/2 x 71/8 in. (21.6 x 18.1cm) 1902 ESTIMATE: $20,000-30,000 PROVENANCE Sotheby's, NEW YORK, 1991 Private Collection, SWITZERLAND LITERATURE John Szarkowski and Maria Morris Hambourg, THE WORK OF ATGET: VOLUME III, NEW YORK, 1983, p. 45, pl. 9 (illustrated) James Borcoman, EUGENE ATGET, 1857-1927, Ottawa, 1984, p. 131, no. 142 (illustrated) This is one of Atget's documents of the sculpture and grounds of Versailles, focusing on Cyparisse, designed by Anselme Flamen (1647-1717), a sculpted depiction of the story of Cyparisse and the deer. In this mythical narrative, the young Cyparisse accidentally killed a deer. Consumed with despair over what he had done, he attempted to kill himself. Apollo, who liked Cyparisse, prevented the suicide by turning the boy into a cypress tree. As discussed in Szarkowski and Hambourg's plate notes, this photograph is an example of the schematic pattern Atget formulated while photographing the grounds of Versailles. One of Atget's goals was to impose some order on the masses of trees, and to include sculptures while maintaining a sense of the architecture of the larger landscape. This piece illustrates his successful method of accomplishing that goal. The verticals of the tree trunks are echoed in the standing sculpture and balanced by the adjacent path, lending a graphic quality to the entire composition. The path recedes into the depths of the vast park, where one notes the distant white sculptures accentuated by a dark backdrop of trees.