Nadar

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Nadar (Gaspard Félix Tournachon; 1820-1910), French photographer, and a central figure in the extraordinary expansion of photography in the mid-19th century. An exact contemporary of Charles Nègre and Gustave Le Gray, this son of a Lyon printer and publisher, born in Paris and orphaned at an early age, had a poverty-stricken and chaotic youth. He cultivated Paris's literary Bohemia and its world of little satirical papers, and dabbled in medicine, literature, and caricature. It was at the beginning of the 1850s, when the invention of the wet-plate process encouraged the rapid proliferation of studios, that Nadar—initially via his younger brother Adrien, a mediocre painter for whom he got lessons from Le Gray—became interested in photography. He began in partnership with Adrien (autumn 1854-spring 1855), and they distinguished themselves with a series of portrait studies of the mime Charles Debureau that were shown at the 1855 Exposition Universelle; and by a commission by the doctor Duchenne de Boulogne. However, the brothers' collaboration soon ended with a spectacular quarrel and a lawsuit.

Nadar's vast circle of contacts in the worlds of art and journalism allowed him to choose subjects from among his most talented contemporaries, who flocked to his house and studio at 113 rue Saint-Lazare. He rapidly achieved success and fame. Working alone between 1855 and 1860, he produced his most inspired and inventive work, creating richly nuanced salted-paper prints from glass-plate negatives. Particularly memorable, among the hundreds he undertook in these years, were his portraits of Charles Baudelaire, Gustave Doré, Alexandre Dumas, Honoré Daumier, Théophile Gautier, Jean-François Millet, and Marie Laurent.

His style was spare: no decor, a neutral background, clothes that served simply to bring out the sitter's outline. He evoked painters like Holbein, Van Dyck, and Leonardo, and made skilful use of light to emphasize facial expression. His talent for relating to his subjects, most of whom were his friends, is very apparent, and they often look more natural and lifelike in his portraits than in those of other photographers.

In 1860 he left his first studio for an opulent building on the ultra-fashionable Boulevard des Capucines (where he was to remain until 1870), becoming heavily indebted as a result. His work, done by numerous assistants and then, from the 1870s, his son Paul, became more commercial and conventional. Portraits were reduced to the carte de visite format and sitters, more and more of whom were actresses, were less carefully chosen.

Fascinated by scientific progress, Nadar was also a pioneer in the field of aerial photography (1858) and photography by artificial light (1861 in the Paris catacombs, 1864-5 in the sewers). His main interest in the 1860s was aerial navigation, and he put much time and money into a balloon aptly named Le Géant.

After the 1870s Nadar no longer played a significant role in photography, and let his son run the business. His exceptional longevity gave him time to work up his memories and become a living legend and an oracle for early photohistorians.

— Sylvie Aubenas

Bibliography

• Nadar, F., Quand j'étais photographe (1900).
• Prinet, J., and Dilasser, A., Nadar (1966).
• Greaves, R., Nadar ou le paradoxe vital (1980).
• Hambourg, M. M., Heilbrun, F., and Néagu, P. (eds.), Nadar (1995)

Nadar (pseud. of Félix Tournachon) (1820-1910). French photographer. He began as a writer of satirical sketches and a caricaturist. In 1853 he opened a photographic studio; here, influenced by contemporary research in physiognomy, he produced a remarkable series of portraits, including profound images of Nerval, Baudelaire, Desbordes-Valmore, Hugo, and many other literary figures. Subsequently he invented aerial photography, working from a balloon.

[Peter France]