1987.35
Quai Along the Seine
Artist
Brassäi (Gyula Halász)
(Hungary, 1899 - 1984, Côte d'Azur, France)
Title
Quai Along the Seine
Creation Date
1931
Century
20th century
Dimensions
9 5/16 in. x 6 11/16 in. (23.6 cm. x 17 cm.)
Classification
Photographs
Creation Place
Europe, France
Medium and Support
gelatin silver print
Credit Line
Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund
Copyright
This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s
Copyright Terms and Conditions.
Accession Number
1987.35
Brassaï captured the dualities of Parisian nightlife in empty night-bound streets and bustling cabarets. In one series, seen across the gallery, he photographed patrons of a café sitting in a booth with a mirror behind them, uncannily reflecting another side of themselves. Although he protested that he was not a surrealist, Brassaï contributed to six of the first seven issues of Minotaure, the movement’s journal in the mid-1930s. He commented: “They considered my photographs ‘surrealist,’ because they revealed a ghostly, unreal Paris, drowned in the night and the fog.”