Keywords: Eugène Atget, Rue de l'Hotel de Ville - Getty Museum.jpg Artwork en Eugène Atget's penchant for photographing in the early morning accounts for the street's empty stillness A sole inhabitant peers out from the hotel doorway so unobtrusive he becomes a part of the architecture as he quietly watches the photographer work Atget's decision to photograph when the city was deserted heightens the sense of desolate abandonment in the city's older sections soon to be demolished to make way for grand broad new boulevards The two dark solemn buildings in the foreground thus frame the old narrow lane with the solid weight of history An hourglass-shaped shaft of bright daylight cuts through the frame dividing the street into shadow and illumination 1921 Albumen silver print Image 21 6 x 18 3 cm 8 1/2 x 7 3/16 in Institution Getty Museum object history exhibition history other versions 62231 Title and negative number 6267 inscribed verso print in pencil credit line accession number 84 XM 1034 7 PD-old-auto 1927 1921 in Paris 1921 photographs Photographs of Paris by Eugène Atget Photographs in the Getty Museum Rue de l'Hôtel-de-Ville Paris |