Versailles, Chaste Venus (1922–1923): Art, History and Details

Versailles, Chaste Venus (1922–1923) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Eugène Atget (French, 1857–1927).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

During the first quarter of the 20th century, Eugène Atget photographed the French urban experience. Periodically, from 1901 to 1926, Atget was particularly attracted to the grounds and gardens at the palace of Versailles, photographing its walks, fountains, and statues during different seasons. An eerie silence and mysteriousness frequently suffuses his images, as it does in this haunting photograph of Antoine Coysevox's bronze sculpture of Venus, positioned on a raised plinth facing the palace's garden facade. With the placement of his camera, Atget brought a carefully ordered harmony to the composition through the alignment of various architectural and sculptural elements.

Object facts

• Title: Versailles, Chaste Venus
• Date: 1922–1923
• Creator attribution: Eugène Atget (French, 1857–1927)
• Culture: France, 20th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: albumen print, gold toned
• Dimensions: Image: 18.1 x 22.6 cm (7 1/8 x 8 7/8 in.); Matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.)
• Collection: Photography
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 1985.113

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.