Versailles - Parc (Versailles - Park)

Eugène Atget, 1921

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Artist: Eugène Atget (French, 1857–1927)
Medium: Albumen silver print
Size: Image: 21.4 × 18.1 cm (8 7/16 × 7 1/8 in.)
Culture: French
Museum: J. Paul Getty Museum
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

This statue of a nymph with a shell that Eugène Atget photographed in 1921 in the gardens of Versailles was a mediocre copy made by the sculptor Auguste Edmé Suchetet (1854-1932) in 1891 to replace an original that had been commissioned from Antoine Coysevox (1640-1720) by Louis XIV in 1683. Suchetet also repaired the original, already once restored earlier in the century, and it was then moved to the Louvre. Coysevox's work was a free interpretation of an antique Greek statue in the Borghese Gardens in Rome, of which a cast had been sent to Paris.

The discoloration on the cheeks of Suchetet's copy makes the nymph appear to be weeping, increasing the poignancy of the forlorn figure, nearly naked against a background of leafless trees and wintry skies. By positioning his camera close to the statue, Atget achieves an image of greater intimacy than is usually the case with his photographs of sculpture. As earlier the piece by Coysevox had suffered the ill effects of weather, so also its replacement shows traces of wear. Thus the picture becomes a meditation on youth and age, on the inevitable decay of both flesh and stone, on time and the passage of the seasons.

See other images Atget took at Versailles (90.XM.64.26, 90.XM.64.28, 90.XM.64.36, 90.XM.64.38, 90.XM.64.42, 90.XM.64.49, 90.XM.64.59, 90.XM.64.62, 90.XM.64.64, 90.XM.64.65).

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