(b Fareins, Ain, 1 April 1828; d Paris, ?1906). French photographer, caricaturist and writer. He was trained as an industrial designer, then, like Nadar, he embarked on a career as a caricaturist. He was passionately fond of the theatre and published a series of lithographs, Le Th??tre ? la ville, in Paris in 1854. He founded literary reviews, among which was Le Boulevard (1861), which established his reputation. After an apprenticeship in 1858 with Pierre Petit, he began to photograph artistic, literary and political personalities with whom he was associated politically, including the composer Gioacchino Rossini (pubd 1877; e.g. in Rochester, NY, Int. Mus. Phot.) and Emile Zola (pubd 1877; e.g. in Rochester, NY, Int. Mus. Phot.). He also photographed actors, including Sarah Bernhardt and the mime artist Charles Deburau on stage. Some friends, including Gustave Courbet (e.g. pubd 1878; Rochester, NY, Int. Mus. Phot., see PHOTOGRAPHY, fig. 9), were the object of a series of photographs. He was also the accredited photographer of Victor Hugo (c. 1870; pubd 1876; Paris, Bib. N., Cab. Est.), with whom he corresponded.
See the Abbreviations for further details.
