"Au Griffon, 39 Quai de l'Horloge"

gelatin silver print

numbered in the negative, copyright stamp on the reverse (Caisse Nationale des Monuments Historiques et des Sites...), inscribed in pencil

Eugène Atget's work holds a special place in the history of photography, one that proved to be groundbreaking only in retrospect through art-historical and museum reception. During his lifetime, Atget by no means saw himself as an avant-garde artist, but pragmatically as a creator of "Documents pour artistes." He sold his systematic photographs of old Paris as visual reference material and templates for artists. From 1890 onwards, Atget set out almost daily with his bulky 18x24-inch large-format camera, a heavy wooden tripod, and numerous dry glass plates to find subjects that he divided into categories such as "landscapes, animals, flowers, monuments, documents, foreground motifs for painters, reproductions of paintings"¹, as was listed as early as 1892 in the journal Revue des Beaux-Arts. Over 35 years, he produced more than 8,500 photographs in all parts of Paris and, in some cases, around Paris as well.
Shortly before the turn of the century, the cityscape had been reshaped by the modernization campaign known as Haussmannization – an inevitably destructive process led by (and named after) Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, in which Paris's medieval neighborhoods were demolished and transformed into broad avenues and public parks. Born in 1857, Atget experienced the most radical phase of this redevelopment during his childhood and youth. He deliberately documented that which was in danger of falling victim to urban progress and stood in the shadow of the now modern metropolis.
While the public largely ignored his work during his lifetime, Atget's documentary approach proved to be extremely influential on the art world. Initially within the tight circle of the Parisian avant-garde, particularly among the Surrealists in the 1920s – who found his images of deserted streets, staircases, and shop windows enchanting and deeply evocative – and subsequently on generations of American photographers from Walker Evans to Lee Friedlander.
The decisive shift in the perception of his oeuvre is largely thanks to the American photographer Berenice Abbott. Working in Paris as Man Ray's assistant in 1925, Abbott met Atget shortly before his death and recognized the cultural-historical and artistic significance of his archive. Following Atget's death in 1927, she purchased around 5,000 original prints and more than 1,000 glass plate negatives and brought them to the United States. In 1929, she published the first article on his work, paving the way for its institutional acquisition into major collections, such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. In 1931, Ansel Adams wrote: "Atget’s prints are direct and emotionally unadulterated records of a rare and subtle perception, and represent perhaps the earliest expression of true photographic art."²

The story behind this 1902 photograph by Eugène Atget is well known. The optician's shop belonged to Eugène Clement Antoine Patoueille; his grandfather's name appears in the window display, while the banner above the window bears the name of a fairly well-known predecessor. The Patoueille family had long been established as barometer makers, so it is likely that the owner himself crafted the barometers shown in the photograph in 1902. The shop's name, "Au Griffon," can be traced back at least to the early 18th century. Two generations of opticians with the surname Marie operated here. The father, Marie père, is said to have supplied glasswork for the Paris Observatory in 1736. His son is known to have inscribed a telescope with the signature "Marie fils, quai de l’horloge du palais au griffon à Paris 1747".³ Numerous other objects and advertisements related to this traditional specialty optician shop can be found. The facade has been preserved to this day; only the griffin has vanished (see Google Street View).
(Christoph Fuchs, translated by DeepL)

Notes

1
"Information et nouvelles" in: Le Revue des beaux-arts, No. 98, Feb. 1892, p. 30, cited in John Szarkowski, Maria Morris Hambourg, The Work of Atget vol. 1, The Museum of Modern Art, New York 1981, p. 14.

2
Ansel Adams, The Fortnightly 1, No. 5, November 5, 1931, p. 25.

3
Brian Stevenson, “Au Griffon - 39 quai de l'Horloge”, https://microscopist.net/AuGriffon.html (accessed October 13, 2026)