Versailles, Fontaine du Point du Jour, (Tigre Terrassant un Ours par Houzeau)

Art Historical Context

Step into the lush gardens of Versailles through Jean-Eugène-Auguste At's evocative 1903 albumen, *Versailles, Fontaine du du Jour (Tigre Terrassant Ours par Houzeau. Captured at the Fontaine du Point du Jour, intimate photograph spotlights a dynamic sculpture by Houzeau: a fierce tiger overpowering a bear, symbol raw natural power amid the opulent Baroque landscape designed by André Le Nôtre for Louis XIV. Atget's lens frames the fountain's intricate details—the water's subtle flow, the stone's weathered texture—offering a quiet glimpse into early 20th-century France, just before World War I reshaped such historic sites. Atget, a pioneering documentary photographer (1857–1927), dedicated his career to preserving Paris and its environs through thousands of images, influencing modern masters like Man Ray and Berenice Abbott. His straight-forward style, devoid of romantic embellishment, emphasizes architectural and sculptural authenticity, making this work a vital record of Versailles' fading grandeur. The albumen silver print medium, popular from the 1850s to 1890s, lends a warm, luminous tonality with fine detail, perfectly suiting Atget's archival mission. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Photography and Media Department (17.6 × 21.8 cm), this piece invites visitors to ponder how photography immortalizes the interplay of art, nature, and history.

About the Artist

Jean-Eugène-Auguste Atget · 1857–1927

Jean-Eugène-Auguste Atget was born on February 12, 1857, in Libourne, France, to working-class parents—a carriage maker father who died in 1862 and a mother who passed away soon after, orphaning him at age six or seven. Raised by his maternal grandparents in Bordeaux, Atget briefly pursued a seafaring life before moving to Paris in the late 1870s to study acting at the Conservatoire d'art dramatiq...