Pont Neuf

1923

Medium

Gelatin silver chloride printing-out paper print

Dimensions

17.9 × 22.9 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-257368

> Eugène Atget inscribed the back of this print *Pont Neuf*, identifying the venerable "new bridge" (completed in 1607) that is dimly visible in the background. More precisely descriptive of at least the foreground subject of the photograph, he wrote on another print *les Quais*, meaning the wharves along the Seine. On the second he also noted that the image was made in winter, which might be guessed by the low-lying fog that obscures the buildings across the river and swathes the distant bridge in a watery cloak. This mist was enhanced by a flaw in the processing of the present print, which created a cloudy band along the right margin. > > Earlier in Atget's career he had systematically documented the embankments and quays along this section of the river as well as their attendant commerce, but here his interest lies more in mood. This shift from documentation to study of atmosphere reflects the change in his sensibility after World War I, a move from the prosaic to the poetic. > > As if in a detective novel or espionage film, the two blurred figures standing on the ramp that leads down onto the quay at the left seem to have staked out the barges below for surveillance. The gen…