[Place Saint-Médard]

Eugène Atget, 1898–1900

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Artist: Eugène Atget (French, 1857–1927)
Medium: Albumen silver print
Size: Image: 21.9 × 18.1 cm (8 5/8 × 7 1/8 in.)
Culture: French
Museum: J. Paul Getty Museum
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Besides the street views for which he is famous, Eugène Atget made numerous photographs of Parisian interiors, including systematic documentation of churches—chapel by chapel, altar by altar. There are also studies of rooms in residences belonging to a cross section of the middle class and several images of staircases in mansions built by the aristocracy. This graceful flight of stairs sweeps downward from darkness into the entrance hall of an elegant house, constructed in 1630.

The light comes from the windows and door next to which Atget placed his camera. By the time that he photographed the staircase, the building was visibly run down, the plaster and stonework stained and sooty, the paving tiles scuffed and dirty, and the hall disfigured by an ugly furnace. However, the wrought iron of the railing that spirals upward in zestful curlicues retains its loveliness. It is not possible to tell whether the opening in the alcove under the steps leads to a broom closet or a basement.

On the back of the photograph Atget wrote the word l'empoisonneuse, "a woman who poisons," which reveals that the historical associations of the house mattered to him. The poisoner was the infamous Marquise de Brinvilliers (about 1630-1676), who had married into the family that built the home. While in residence there, she bore three children of uncertain paternity and three by known lovers.

Her principal paramour helped her to devise and employ a concoction of arsenic, toad venom, and vitriol to poison her father and two brothers. Her attempts on the lives of her husband, sister, and children's tutor were unsuccessful. Having unwisely written accounts of her misdeeds, which also included arson and incest, she was apprehended, tried, and, having been found guilty, beheaded, burned, and her ashes thrown to the wind.

See other staircases photographed by Atget.

Text: J. Paul Getty Trust, CC BY 4.0.