Versailles, Grand Trianon, Coin de Parc 1901

This photograph of Versailles, Grand Trianon was captured by Eugène Atget, using the albumen silver print process. Atget, working in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, chronicled the disappearing face of Paris, often focusing on the overlooked and the everyday. Here, we are presented with a staged landscape of power; the statue, a symbol of classical authority, stands amidst the deliberately cultivated nature of Versailles. Atget's lens treats the statue and the forest with equal attention, blurring the lines between artifice and nature, power and the pastoral. The print evokes a feeling of melancholy, an almost haunting stillness that prompts us to reflect on the passage of time and the shifting nature of cultural symbols. The artist developed alternative narratives in his pieces, focusing on what lies beyond the constructed facade.